


Black Cats Need Their Ladybugs

by PheonixShadowZ



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chat!Marinette, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Horrible Luck, Kwami Swap, Ladybug!Adrien, Love Swap, Slice of Life, hopefully
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-01-08 12:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12254172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PheonixShadowZ/pseuds/PheonixShadowZ
Summary: Or, a series of unfortunate events in Marinette's life.Marinette has never had a normal life, since youth she has had horrible luck, and just when she thinks she has it under control, a silver earring drops into her possession, screwing up her life further.





	1. Prologue or Enter the Walking Disaster Area

**Author's Note:**

> An introduction to this universe's Marinette. She's a little different than you might remember her.
> 
> This Story and "AU" is built off of a theory that I spawned while reading a Kwami Swap story. The theory being that the thing keeping Marinette's bad luck in check is the Ladybug Miraculous (i.e good luck in a box) and that without them, plus with the influence of the Black Cat Miraculous, Marinette's Bad luck would be amplified to walking Disaster. This Chapter and the next show the baseline of Mari's Bad luck (as a baby it was worse than it will be in story present), once the Miraculous come into the picture it will get worse. Mari will have ways of weakening this bad luck which will be elaborated on later. One which works in and out of the suit, and another only in the suit.  
> Notes:  
> 1st. Note this is not just going to be bashing on Mari, I will be going into the reasons for her bad and worsening luck later down the line (other than a brief description in early chapters.)  
> 2nd. This will be Kwami and Love swapped for the purpose of the plot, to explain, Mari has Plagg and is Chatte Noire, and Adrien is Ladybeetle, also Adrien will be the one with the crush on Mari, and Chatte will be head over heels for Ladybug  
> 3rd. I will be giving both Miraculous (Miraculi?) extra abilities that the holders can expend excess Bad or Good luck respectively to use  
> 4th. This Work will not have a set update schedule, I have school and other engagements that come before writing, so expect sporadic updates and hiatuses (just because I haven't updated doesn't mean this is dead)  
> Enjoy!

Marinette just wanted a normal life: have friends, get a stable job that she loved going to, get a nice but not ostentatious house, have one point five children with someone she loved and live happily ever after. Normally, this wouldn’t be a bad or unobtainable dream for someone. But sadly, for Marinette this was a distant fantasy, the words ordinary and normal had never applied to Marinette. See Marinette was a bad luck charm.

It started when she was two. When she had ended up crawling into one of the mixers in her parents’ bakery, her mother got her out in time, but it was close. When she turned five she ended up with bruises and scrapes all over her knees and elbows purely from the number of times she tripped over nothing or some misplaced item. At age ten she figured out what was wrong when the students in her class were having a lesson on randomness. They were playing a game where they would roll dice to see who got the largest number, a tie went to the lowest roll the next time. Every time she rolled she got either a one or a six, ones before and during ties, sixes on tiebreakers. When she noticed this she traded dice with her peers and she found that no matter who’s dice she used this would keep happening. It only got more infuriating after this, when she was thirteen she ended up always late for class, no matter how early she got up she would always have to deal with something, be it a crowd, a closed road due to maintenance or any number of other reasons. And by high school, she was avoided despite her kind yet shy demeanor and supposedly approachable nature.

As she grew up she had figured out ways around her curse, she started wearing long sleeves and pants, even in summer. She learned how to sew so she could mend the clothes that her constant tripping destroyed and started carrying a fully stocked first aid kit to fix worse injuries. She stayed away from games of luck and chance like the plague; that one time she had to sit in a dunk tank where everyone, no matter how young, sunk her on every throw was enough. She created a persona of not caring, someone distant, but not mean, approachable but not so much to get attention when it was unwanted. And another of a shy, caring, klutzy girl who was brave and stood up for people when needed to cover her truly abrasive, snarky, sarcastic, harlequin personality. People usually flocked just to make sure she was okay after a mishap, but she didn’t want them to stay longer than they needed to make sure she could get home to sulk. Sometimes, she thought that everyone else should be able to have days like she had. She never outwardly showed this, of course, she only felt it. Whenever someone gave her a look of pity as they helped her up, she wished that she was the one pitying some poor girl who had a flower pot land on her head. When her parents declined her help in the bakery due to the fact she would create more of a mess than there was before, she wished that they could feel how she felt. When someone actively made her life worse because of her supposed “clumsiness” she wished she could give them her curse for a day and watch the fireworks as their lives went up in flames. She wasn’t vindictive or anything, but she was a large fan of Karma, especially seeing as all the bad luck she was having now would mean great things in the future. Despite this optimism, she felt that her life couldn’t get worse.

Then, she met Plagg and life really went down the crapper.


	2. Chapter 1 or What they say about Black Cats (Origins pt. 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins ...

It had started as a semi-normal day, Mari was able to get ready for school without major incident, the only thing that had happened had been a minor spill in the kitchen during breakfast. For some reason she felt optimistic, it was her first day at the school just across the road, no way she could be late now! Of course, the universe was having none of that, as she was waiting for the crosswalk to be clear (she rarely had luck with busses anyway), she saw a man jaywalking across the street, with a bus barreling towards him, despite her instincts to get someone else to help him, she ran and tackled him out of the way. This resulted in her cutting her leg and getting a rather large lump on her head, but she ignored these and focused on the man.  
“Are you alright?” she asked, her shy persona kicking in automatically after years of use.

“Just fine thanks to you” the man replied, “but what made you do that for me?” he asked, lightly tapping a cane on the cobblestone.

“Well,” she sighed, “I couldn’t just leave you to be a under turned macaron, now could I?” she responded, chuckling disparagingly at her mild baker’s joke, holding out a box of macarons that had turned out a bit flat, but still edible, which she hoped to use to get in her class’s good graces before her curse somehow ruined their lives by proximity.

Taking one the man thanked her and left muttering something about black cats and ladybugs. She just sighed and looked at her phone, murmuring “let’s see, class starts in … five minutes ago!” she screeches, quickly walking down the street, looking for hazards as she went. She avoided walking under three ladders and avoided two black cats on the way to school, no need to worsen her already abysmal luck she felt, slowly deciding that this day could only get worse.  
When she made it to class she sat in the front row next to a girl with a fiery head of hair who was fiddling on a cell phone. Instead of trying her luck with the new girl, she pulled out her dinged and cracked writing tablet and her somehow unscathed sketchbook, she opened the book to a fresh page and started designing a hat that would go with that old man’s understated cane. For some reason, the teacher was not yet in the room, and while usually, she would be jumping for joy at avoiding reprimand, Mari knew something was going to go wrong rather quickly. No sooner had she thought this than a swatch of blond hair caught her eye, hanging over her book and causing a chill to go down her spine. Of course, Chloe would be in her class.  
“Excuse me! What are you doing in that seat, klutz?” Chloe taunted hoping to get a rise out of the unlucky girl.

Normally Marinette would ignore her, but this time she decided to bite the hook out of morbid curiosity. “Because stairs mean tripping and I would rather not fall on my face more than once today.” She snarked turning off her persona letting her more aggressive side shine.

Chloe, not bothered by this easily replies, “Well trek up one flight, that seat is for my Adrikins.” Marinette could practically see the hearts floating in Chloe’s eyes as she said this.

“Oh,” Mari responded leaning on an elbow and wincing internally, remembering how she had bruised it yesterday, “I thought that your attitude stunk enough from across the row, I wonder who would be able to stand it any closer.”

“Only the Adrien Agreste, son of Ariadne and Gabriel Agreste.” Chloe spewed, practically floating, disregarding the first half of Mari's statement.

“That pretty boy,” Mari scowled scoffing, “I bet he doesn’t even know how to tie his own shoes, let alone go to and survive in school.”

Marinette held disdain for the boy ever since she had first seen him. His life was perfect, his mother and father loved each other (not that hers didn’t) and him (there was the sticking point, hers saw her as a walking disaster waiting to happen). He lived in a huge mansion and seemed to never need anything. He was her antithesis, her complete opposite. He was made of good luck and it made her sick to think someone could live like that.  
Mari had the chance to meet him a few times, first when his family had come to the bakery to get a snack on their way home from some show. When she had met Adrien, she had been entranced (she loved his father’s work and wished to follow his example), but when she had seen him pick up a ten-euro note from the sidewalk (probably hers, her wallet seemed to leak money without a discernable cause), then meet a nice girl who agreed to a quiet date with him (without him referencing to his job as a model or her recognizing him), followed by getting a free pastry due to a promotion her family was putting on (which Mari then convinced them to never do again, lest she ‘help’ on one of their date nights), she had quickly learned to hate him. When he brought that same girl to the bakery that Friday for said date, Mari had made sure she could be their server at the small café portion of the bakery so that she could hopefully ruin his day (even if it was by proxy feelings). She had succeeded, by accidentally implying that she had seen Adrien with another girl the day before (which she had but now knew to be his “best friend” Chloe) and had walked away only to have a spray of hot coffee just barely miss the back of her neck as over splash from the girl’s reaction aimed towards the blond model, who was now covered in crumbs and black coffee.

"Says the girl who trips over herself twenty times a day," Chloe interjects, clearly angry that her crush's image was being besmirched by a "klutz" like the girl in front of her.

Shaking herself out of the memory, Marinette simply stayed in the seat, not moving. Her day had been equivalent to a normal one for her already and it hadn’t gotten to lunch yet. Her only explanation was the universe had it out for her today, as if to say that she for some reason deserved to suffer for some unknown slight she made the day before. She had stopped to pet that cat, she had forgotten to check the color as it had come out of nowhere and just been rubbing against her leg.

"Sorry, could you repeat yourself, I couldn't hear you over the sound of your own ego," Marinette said looking back to her sketchbook, then making sure her tablet wasn't too banged up to work.

Chloe, knowing that she would get nowhere when Marinette was like this, simply moved up a row, scaring the previous occupants to the front using some threat relating to her father. Marinette was already ready for them, having re-engaged her school persona and smiling brightly at them, offering them each a macaron.  
Then she turned and greeted her seatmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I did give Adrien extreme good luck, the cinnamon roll deserves it. Also, a hint at how Mari can avoid her Curse, or at least weaken it.  
> Just a warning (i.e. Spoilers!), Mari is going to be an Ice Queen to Adrien for a while, if you don't like it, suck it up - it's only for the (Origins) arch then it will lighten up to more of an acceptance, then more much further down the line. It's just in Mari's character to dislike his "blessing", especially since she has been living on the other side of the coin all her life. And yes, later, her more clownish side will be shown through Chatte Noire rather than a break in Persona, and this Chat will be quite different from the show one. It's important to note that Mari breaking one of her personas is rare. She will only do it if she feels it is necessary or if she wants to deliberately mess with someone's predisposed notions. Expect a lot of sassy, snarky Marinette in these early chapters, especially towards Golden Boy and Chloe. And a lot of Shy, Kind Mari to Alya and maybe Nino  
> Again Suggestions, Comments, and Polite Criticism appreciated, just follow the guidelines on the bottom author's note of the Prologue.


	3. Chapter 2 or Fire Meets Ice, Fortune Courts Strife (Origins pt. 2)

Marinette thought that this would be tricky. All her life people had been "warned" about her ahead of time and avoided her like plague. When she let loose a shy, yet friendly “hello” she expected a cringe and for the Fire haired girl to move seats. Mari had never had a seatmate before. What she didn’t expect was for the girl next to her to ask what her favorite hero was, and where she lived, and why she wore her hair in pigtails.  
“Well,” Marinette answered hesitantly, “I’ve always liked Majestia,” she said, remembering the graceful hero from her youth. “um … other than that, I live above the bakery down the street, and I wear my hair like this because loose it gets in my face, and when I put it up it always gets snagged in something.”  
“Sorry, I just remembered I didn’t ask your name, I’m Alya,” Alya said extending a hand.  
“Marinette, this school's new resident Klutz.” Marinette joked, hesitantly taking Alya’s hand and shaking.  
“What do you mean by klutz? I haven’t seen you do anything especially not-graceful.” Alya said head quirked  
“Well, today isn’t as bad as it usually is,” Marinette lied, “Usually when I’m late, I’ll stumble into class with disheveled (sometimes dirt covered) clothes and trip at least three times on the way to my seat.”  
“Jeez girl, how did it get to that? I mean, being late I get … But that second half makes it seem like you’re cursed…” Alya joked, then stopped seeing a look of distress flash across Marinette’s face.  
“Nail on the head, just my luck.” Mari groused mentally.  
“Ha, as if curses existed. Nah, I just have bad luck. Today is a good day compared to the usual.” She said in a quiet voice, not even believing herself.  
“Yeah sure, so why do you think you have such bad luck,” Alya asked gently, putting a hand on Marinette’s shoulder.  
“It’s a stupid reason, you’ll laugh,” Marinette mumbled, no longer wishing for social contact.  
“No, I won't, so spill” looks like Mari's curse is working overtime today.  
A sigh, “Fine as long as you don’t laugh." at Alya's nod of agreement she said, "My parents and I think I have such bad luck because I was born on a Friday the thirteenth in October.” Mari said hiding her embarrassment behind her hands. She knew it was a stupid reason, superstition was never a good explanation.  
“Huh, it makes as much sense as magic or a curse. Still probably not the case, I doubt you have any sort of bad luck.” Alya responded calmly.  
“Believe what you want, all I know is bad things constantly happen to me and I have no clue why,” Marinette said, slumping a bit, wincing at the cut in her leg from that morning’s stupidity.  
“Anyway, I hear that I’m not the only new student. Do you know who the other new kid is?" Alya asked hoping to change the subject to something better, she failed.  
“Oh, it’s Adrien Agreste, model, polyglot, and all around lucky person.” Marinette griped, going back to her design, deciding on a straw hat with a bowler shape, and a small turtle shell designed button on the strip.  
“Did I hear my name?” asked a voice in the doorway.  
“Great, so Golden Boy is in my class too, happy days.” Mari sighed looking up to see what the model looked like today.  
She had to admit, he was quite handsome, if she didn’t hate his guts she may have considered asking him out. His blond hair lay in a way that seemed natural, His eyes gleamed an emerald green that seemed to shine with happiness, His clothes were crisp and clean, the opposite of her wrinkled hand repaired duds. His whole look screamed, “I woke up this beautiful” while hers screamed, “I’m held together by sheer willpower.” It was a pain thinking that she would have to deal with him every day, but she had been living with her curse all her life so why not deal with another.  
“Hey, you’re that waitress from the bakery!” Adrien yelled, looking at Marinette with interest before quickly putting on a glare.  
“Yep, so how was that coffee shower, I hear that it can be quite refreshing.” Mari snarked giving Adrien a look that said, “why should I care?”  
“It was hot, and rather sticky afterward, who would have thought that coffee dries sticky?” Adrien gripes still giving Mari a glare.  
“Oh, that must have been the sugar that you ordered in it. Anyway, did you have something to say other than how horrible your date went?” Mari asked pretending to be sincere, smirking all the way.  
“Yeah, actually I was going to ask you to replace the clothes that were ruined.” He said, slipping into a business-like attitude, but a glint in his eye that Marinette didn't miss.  
“Ah, trying to play the master,” Marinette thought, “watch and learn young Padawan.”  
“Why should I replace them, it was your “girlfriend” that got the coffee on them? Or is this just your way of getting me alone so that you can try to win me over with your boyish charm?” Marinette asked giving him the look a cat would give a mouse between its paws. “What are you over her already? I have to say that I will have to reject your kind invitation. She gained a cruel look that only Adrien picked up on, "Especially seeing as, if you must know, I don’t date spoiled rich kids with too much pocket change.”  
“I, Uhm, I mean. You see, No she's. Ahb, the reason for that is is …” Just then the teacher walked in, saving him from explaining himself.  
“Ooo, saved by the bell Golden Boy, better luck next time.” Mari teased, as Adrien walked up and sat at the desk behind her, staring at the back of her head with an enraptured look.  
During the lessons, like clockwork Marinette was called on when she had no clue of the proper answer and Adrien only when he knew the perfect one. It was almost as if he was blessed with the opposite of her curse. But that was crazy, why would someone who already had it all, be given more with perfect luck? It made no sense so she dismissed the idea as crazy and paid attention to the lesson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: we see Adrien's Genisis, his home life, and how he got to be in that "argument" with our favorite kitty cat.


	4. Chapter 3 or Do Ladybugs Dream of Magic Cats? (Origins pt. 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what my long chapters look like, enjoy!

All his life Adrien had lived without a care. No matter what he did things seemed to go his way, even as a young child he would have good luck, he loved playing card games with his handful of friends even when he always got what he needed to win, He always won at board games, and when he became a teenager he became his father’s top model when his mother accidentally mixed their family photos in with the Model’s headshots by mistake. Despite his great luck, Adrien was tired with life. He learned quickly that if everything goes your way things get boring quickly. He found that his life was much more stagnant than others were. It seemed that his life lacked an element of chaos that others had. At one point he decided to do an experiment, he went to bingo tournaments around Paris to see just how good his luck got. He was so good that he was kicked out of the third he got to and was banned from the competitive bingo scene for life. After this, he decided it would be best if he tried staying away from the public if only to not completely take the point out of many other people’s lives.  
His life picked up when he was about to go into his tenth year of homeschool, He had been studying Shakespeare as part of his literature course and his family to him to a version of Romeo and Juliet that was going on at a major opera house that was within walking distance of home. On the way back, they decided to stop by a bakery they had seen on the way. Just outside the store, he bumps into a girl with orangish hair with two small bobs hanging and framing her face, she seemed nice enough so he asks if he can take her out for brunch later in the week to make up for it. She accepts, they trade numbers and go on their ways. On his way in he sees a girl with rumpled clothing and a messy blue bun behind the counter stocking shelves, turned towards him with a look of interest on her face, head quirked like a cat. Despite her attire he found her exceedingly attractive, her deep blue-black hair contrasting the most beautiful bluebell eyes he had seen ever, her slight figure contrasting strong looking composure. Shaking away his original attraction, he had walked up to the counter after stopping and picking up some money he found on the ground by the still. When he inquired about a chocolate croissant the owners walked up behind the girl who had taken a place behind the register. They said that he had been the 100th customer during the anniversary of their first week open, so he would get an extra pastry free. At this development he saw the girl start giving him a dirty look, almost as if he had smacked her in the face, he took a second to look for a name tag, not seeing one. She set one of his croissants down the correct way, and the second she accidentally put down with the curved, icing covered side down. At this, she seemed to gain a smirk before quickly fixing her “mistake”. Then something interesting happened, when he had collected his stuff and turned to walk out the door, he tripped, ruining his first croissant. He had a weird thought at that point, “Did I just have bad luck?” At that thought, it seemed like the fog that had surrounded his world cleared and he could see the world like a “normal person” could. On the way home, it started raining when his family had forgotten umbrellas, and where his parents complained that their clothes would be ruined, Adrien seemed to be running a giddy high at the abnormal occurrence of something not going his way.  
A few days passed. His makeup date with the girl, he had forgotten her name in the high of having things not go his way for the first time in his life, was here. His good luck had kicked in roughly two days later, and the fog of order reasserted itself. It was odd, now that he had a taste of the chaos that bad luck could give, he craved it. During those two days, he felt like he had lived for the first time in a long time.  
His parents couldn’t explain it, for those two days he wasn’t the reserved, mild-mannered boy that they had been raising for years, he was a teenager, a somewhat rowdy, energetic, giddy, teenager. They had asked him what was different and he expressed that it was hard to explain, the most he could say was “it feels like something that was missing from my life finally became a part of it.” So, when he had plummeted down to earth the third day, the day he before he was supposed to go back to that bakery. He had woken up that day with a weird feeling, from what he understood of hangovers from his parent’s description he could say that this was probably a good approximation of one. The difference was that this was an all-encompassing ache, after an hour or two the ache was gone but he felt empty, like something he had been using to fuel his mood had run out. An hour later the fog that he had had around the periphery of his life reasserted itself and he found himself in a melancholic mood. Rather than going through the motions of the day he had sulked through the house, ignored all his planned lessons, he would ace them anyway, and had ended up walking down the street towards the Bakery he had visited a few days before. On his way he saw that blue haired girl walking down the road talking with an old friend of his, laughing at some joke that the DJ had made. Adrien then saw the girl trip and start to fall towards a trash can conveniently place near her, he made it just in time to catch her, in a dip of course. When he looked down from the instinctual reaction he found the girl glaring up at him and muttering curses under her breath. He had removed her from the dip, apologized for going overboard and asked her to be careful, walking his way forward he ran into Chloe, a friend from when he was much younger which he had grown apart from, mainly because she had started throwing herself at him in hopes of getting him to become more than friends. He said hello and chatted for a bit while trying to peel her off his arm, then quickly retreated into an alley before making a U-turn once she had gone. He then continued to the bakery and got another croissant with the then euro he had found the day before. Taking back the change, he had sat at a small cafe portion, tucked in the corner away from the register, and tucked in deciding that he would bring his date there the next day.  
Of course, the next day was upon him and he was walking to the bakery for the third time that week. He met the girl at the door holding it like the gentleman he was raised as, then entered. When they got to the table he saw the same girl as the last two times walking towards him wearing a pink-tinted white tee-shirt with a floral print and a black jacket, a pair of pink jeans covered by a waitress's apron. Her hair was done in two clean pigtails that bobbed as she walked, marking her gait, a pencil was tucked over her ear and there was a small notebook in the apron’s pocket. She had a smile on her face, odd considering the last two times he had met her she had been scowling at him and had taken their orders: two coffees one with cream and sugar, and one black with the sweet stuff, one blueberry crumb muffin, and one strawberry-chocolate croissant. She had walked away and a few minutes of idle chatter later she had returned with their beverages. When she went to set down the drinks she accidentally had knocked over the salt shaker, Adrien caught it quickly before it hit the ground and shattered. As he put the shaker back on the table he noticed their pretty waitress's face form the thin line of a smirk before she said, “At it again, eh tomcat?”  
The girl gave the blue haired girl a look before asking, “At what again, miss?”  
“Oh, I just saw this guy yesterday with another girl clinging to his arm. They seemed pretty close.” and the girl in pigtails walked off to grab the rest of their meal. When she had just gotten out of splash range the girl he thought of as a prospective girlfriend tossed her drink at him, scalding him and soaking his white shirt, staining it brown. He turned towards the Bluenette and found her staring next to her at a puddle of coffee in subdued disbelief. Then his attention was wrenched away from the girl to his date, who stood up and stomped away with her purse over her shoulder.  
For the second time that week he felt the hole in his life fill. He felt the giddiness that seemed to fill him whenever something bad happens to him. He felt like he was alive again. He thought to himself about this development, “does this make me a masochist? And if so, why is it such a good feeling?” 

A couple weeks passed and so did his bad luck high. During that time, he found out that the school that was down the road would take him even though he was homeschooled. He begged and pleaded and eventually his parents allowed him to go. They were obviously nervous as he hadn’t been to a brick and mortar school since he was very young, but in the end, the worry of him not having a social life and becoming a social outcast with no friends (despite the fact he already had many) won the day. In his excitement to go to his first day of school in years, he forgot to be prompt and had ended up late, rushing out the house to make it in time to get to school, on the way he ran into an old man crossing the street in front of his home. Adrien looked to the right and saw a car barreling towards the old man, Adrien rushed forward and yanked the old man out of the way, catching the man’s cane just before it got the chance to land on his head. The old man gave Adrien an interesting look, thanked him and walked on further. A small turtle poking his head out of the man’s coat pocket smiling at the gift that the old man had in store for the teenager.  
Adrien walked into the classroom and heard a voice he didn’t expect, “Adrien Agreste, model, polyglot and all around lucky person.”  
At the sound of her voice, a smile crossed his face, followed by an idea. Quickly putting on a scowl and an air he had gotten from his father, he walked up to one of the front desks, “Did I hear my name?”  
…  
Adrien had gotten burned, hard. As he walked up the set of stairs to the next desk, he contemplated the anomaly that would be sitting in front of him for the year. She was on the outside, a shy, socially awkward girl with a pure heart, but he had seen her layers peeled away, and seen the vicious animal sitting there with two blue pigtails. After a bit more thinking he found that it wasn’t so much a random animal as a cat, a house cat. She seemed to have that cruel curiosity that his mother’s old cat had, at the same time she was sly, cunning, and had a poker face that only a champ could hope to shatter unless she wanted it to. And it seemed that she wanted him to see her true colors.  
The only question left in his mind was if this meant that she liked him or despised him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Akuma is (hopefully) incoming next chapter. If I don't think of something else. ; 3
> 
> Also to note why Adrien suddenly has bad luck. When Marinette does something that is considered bad luck, she transfers the newly created bad luck to someone close by due to the fact that she is already full of it (yes, until she has her Miraculous she has a cap on how much bad luck she can hold). In these cases, it has been Adrien, but this is why she worries about black cats and other unlucky stuff.  
> Also if you didn't know, putting pastries (specifically, bread products) on a table upside down is seen as bad luck in some countries, mainly because it's said that in the middle ages bakers reserved a loaf of bread for the executioner by turning it upside-down.  
> Have a good day and DFTBA!


	5. Chapter 4 or Black Cats and Coccinelles (Origins pt. 4)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien find mysterious jewelry and godlike beings don't seem too sad about their itty-bitty living space.

Chapter 4 or Black Cats and Coccenelles (Origins pt. 4)  
It had been a few weeks and a pattern emerged for Marinette regarding Adrien’s advances: get to school, deal with his early morning flirting and outwardly romantic gestures with some quick-witted response or downright cold denial. Then hang out with Alya and/or Nino while he stalked her the rest of the day. September was fast approaching but that would be the least of Paris’s worries before long.  
Hawkmoth stood looking out his bay window at the city, wondering who his first victim would be. His Answer came in the form of a tall, heavy-set boy filled with resentment for a classmate. He sent out an Akuma without a second thought.  
Ivan was mad, he had just been called a wimp for not being able to express his feelings for a girl he liked and was set to the principal’s office for responding, so when a voice in his head said that it could help him, he accepted without thinking. Dark light covered him as he blacked out, letting his emotions take the reins. Breaking through a wall, Stoneheart started going after Kim.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Marinette had been through some strange thing over the years. Parades of black cats following her, Rube Goldberg machines of destruction due to a misplaced banana peel, even some awkward situations she wouldn’t even wish on Chloe, but the cat-demon-thing that was currently flitting around, nomming on various accoutrement around her room looking for food took the cake, ate it and deposited it on her pillow in a neat pile for cleanup. She had just barely gotten his name before he had floated (floated!) off to try and eat her out of house and home. Finally shaken out of her stupor when he got a whisker-feeler-thing, stuck in her sewing machine, she picked him up and squeezed ever so slightly to show she was not pleased,  
“Nothing in this room is edible, and I suggest you stop nosing around before you become my new pin cushion.” Marinette threatened, no longer giving two flips if she was coming off socially acceptable or not. Now was not the time for calm, level-headed Mari, now was the time for Marinette the one that had gone through the crucible of bad luck for nearly 15 years (she would turn seventeen that October).  
The Cat-Demon’s eyes widened in fear and understanding before he calmed down, saying “Yes, mam. But if it isn’t too much to ask could I have some cheese. If I get some I can explain things to you.”  
Marinette sighed and complied, bringing up a few cheese danishes for the weirdly cute but annoying creature.  
“Spill.” She said, stuffing a danish into the creature’s paws.  
“Ok, so first off, I’m a Kwami. We’re magical creature somewhere between a God and a really powerful wizard, that can give our masters superpowers.” The kwami said between huge bites of pastry.  
“Ok, so what powers do you give me?”  
“Well, the quickest way to explain that is to introduce myself. I’m Plagg, the kwami tied to the Black Cat miraculous, which grants the user dominion over bad luck and destruction.”  
Marinette stared at the earing sitting in the black box on her desk. It was a silver stud earring with a beaded dangle that connected a single diamond cut onyx gem. If this could really give her power over bad luck, did that mean she could stop it from affecting her, shift it to others so they could feel her pain? She went to put it on, thinking that nothing could go too horribly wrong with it.  
Once it was in her right ear she settled back down, flicking the dangling onyx idly with her thumb.  
“So, before you turn me into a superhero, any warnings?” she asked, cautious of this new power.  
“Not anything that I can’t explain to you once you’re in the suit, or after you defeat the minion of the villain I was set to help you defeat which must be currently rampaging,” Plagg said, starting to become comfortable with the power dynamic now that it was more relaxed. “You transform by saying claws out and turn back by saying claws in. Any more questions before you turn back, you ring the bell.”  
“Ok,” Marinette said a bit suspect, “Plagg, Claws Out!”  
Plagg flew into the silver stud of the earing, turning it black and adding a neon green paw print to the front of it and seemingly changing the onyx to an emerald. And the transformation began  
First, she felt her hair ribbons come undone and spiral into space for a bit, letting her hair fall loosely to cover her ears, and a mask made of some black material attached to her face. Next, her shirt shifted into a black blouse with minimal sleeves, and a pair of black leather gloves appeared on her hands as her fingernails sharpened. Around the neck of her blouse her hair ribbons, now only one blue ribbon, created a bow around a silver bell. Her pants turned to a pair of black leggings of the same material as the mask, covered by a skirt that fell just above knee length. Her shoes became black boots with a low heel. Lastly, atop her head, a pair of black ears appeared which looked suspiciously like they were made of leather, and around her waist, a Scarf/Sash appears, the excess flicking around like a bushy cat tail.  
Staring at her new costume, Marinette feels the pieces of leather on her head twitch, and the scarf around her waist flick like a real tail. Then she feels the bell shake around her neck, curious she flicks it and out pops a black smoke form of Plagg, the ethereal form circles around her for a bit and hums.  
“Where’s the baton?” he murmurs circling her again and giving a hard stare before gasping out, “Really, I wouldn’t have thought that those would show up again.”  
“What’s the matter?” the new cat heroine asks, seemingly now nervous.  
“It’s nothing, just means that I need to teach you how to summon your weapon, rather than it just being on your back. It’s been a while since a Chat Noir used a bound weapon, but seems you’re full of surprises, Blue.” Evidence of a smirk was written all over his voice. She gave a scowl and he continued, noticing her hair get a shade darker at her discontent,  
“Ahem, to summon your weapon, main mode of transportation, and communicator, you need to focus on the part of your soul that houses your bad luck, it should feel … well, the best I can say is dark, mischievous, maybe a touch cruel as well. Then pull it to the surface while doing some motion connected to the weapon that you will see in your mind.”  
Marinette focused, and found, rather than only being one point, that she felt it circulating her. When she voiced this to Plagg, he sighed and said to just focus a portion of it into a point and that he will explain later.  
When Marinette finally figured it out, she crossed her forearms and pulled them apart, black and green mist covering them then turning into what looked like a pair of cestus (thank you useless Latin class from middle school) made of the same black leather material as her outfit, with four blades curving from the front sides, bending with her fingers, a diamond-shaped socket on the back of the right hand.  
Marinette stared for a bit, they felt right, like they were a part of her (which they probably were).  
Then she became aware of how amazing this felt, usually, she felt weighed down, almost lethargic because of her bad luck, which led to her perpetually bad mood which she hid until she was alone with internet access. Now, she felt it fueling her, rushing around her body making her feel alive. And it felt like she was in control for once.  
Giggling with glee at the newfound feeling of freedom she asked Plagg how she could use her cestus to get around.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Adrien was having a normal day. He interacted with Marinette (he had even stopped stuttering now) and after the usual turn-away, he had watched from a distance. He had gotten home that day and noticed a box on his desk, thinking that it was an early birthday gift from his parents he opened the box and a red light shone from the box. Out popped probably the most adorable thing he had seen in his life, it looked like a red bug, about the size of a mouse. He immediately grabbed it and gave it a hug, wondering what it was.  
“Hi, I’m Tikki! I’m a kwami!” The now named Tikki said in a choked yet adorable high-pitched voice.  
“Hello Tikki, I’m Adrien. I don’t think that I’ve ever met or seen a kwami before, what do you do?”  
“Well, I give you superpowers when you use that ring and say, ‘Spots On’.” She said, pointing to a ring sitting in the box. It was silver with a third sphere of onyx set in it, and a single onyx gem set on the side of the ring.  
“Ok, so I just have to put this on and say Spots On?” Adrien asked after the ring was on his finger.  
Suddenly, Tikki was sucked into the ring, turning the top onyx a bright red with five black spots, and the gem on the side a topaz sheen, then a transformation started.  
A polka-dotted red mask appeared on his face, and red spandex-like material covered his form. A pair of black boots covered his feet, and a black belt wrapped around his waist, a scabbard without a sword hung from it. A pair of black gloves with red spots covers his hands as he flexes a bit.  
“So Cool,” Adrien says breathlessly.  
“I wish you had let me finish,” said something in a chastising voice reminiscent of his mother’s  
“Who said that!” Adrien jumped, looking for the source of the voice.  
“Up here silly,” Adrien looked up and saw no one, “In your head.” The voice finally deadpanned.  
“Wait, … Tikki, is that you?” Adrien asked, wondering how the little kwami had gotten in there through a ring.  
“Of course! Right now, I’m technically in your ring channeling small amounts of your innate good luck through my powers to create this suit. Interestingly, in the process of creating the initial suit something went sideways and seemed to unlock the book of order – something that has not been seen in ages.”  
“OK, can the book wait until the giant raging golem outside tearing up the city can be defeated?”  
“Oh yes, I was just going to say it could. Anyway, The main gist of your powers is that you create and purify things. In essence, you are the perfect strategist and support, changing the tide of battle from a distance with your lucky charm and general good luck. You should have some sort of partner that will do the close-range stuff: doing the actual fighting, finding the item which the corruption has taken hold of and destroying it, protecting you where possible, etc. Your job is to figure out where the corrupted item is, formulate a strategy to get it, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, purify the corrupted spirit that has created the Akuma before it flies away and multiplies.”  
“Ok Tikki, how do I get around, I’m not that great at gymnastics and I have no mode of transportation.”  
“Actually, you do, reach your hand around to that scabbard at your waste and imagine drawing a sword of your choice,” Tikki instructed.  
When he did as she said, he felt a weight in his hand, giving it a few swings it felt good, opening his eyes he saw a rapier, black with red rings around the blade, the handguard looked like a ladybug in flight, and at the small pommel, he saw an indentation that looked like it would fit his ring snuggly.  
“Give it a flick while holding that stud on the handle,” Tikki said, seemingly enthused about something.  
When he flicked the blade, it changed into a bladed whip separating into sections where the red rings were. Aiming at a faraway gargoyle he swung his whip at the head, the wire holding the pieces together seemed to expand and as it flew. The sword’s tip stuck and when he pulled a bit, the sword started quickly reforming itself, propelling him until he was standing next to the statue, the sword stuck in the thing’s head. He pulled the sword out and found that there was no mark left on the statue. Once he knew this he started making his way towards the rather large stone man that was on his way towards the arena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So to recap, both of them have met their kwami and transformed for the first time.  
> Yes, I did change the miraculous' forms. Do you think that the Agreste parents would be okay with their son getting his ears pierced? Even with how chill I am going to be making them I doubt that that would work out.  
> Anyway, I think I did a good job on the new designs, if you don't think so and have an idea of what I could change, I would love to hear it! Also, the dangling gem and the gem on the side of Adrien's ring are important and will not be changed under any circumstances.
> 
> Other than that, don't you just love golden boy! ^o^  
> Have a nice day and DFTBA!


	6. Chapter 5 or Stonehearts Crack Easily

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Somewhat short chapter this time, but our heroes meet and fight Stoneheart for the first time.  
> I apologize for the lack of creativity, but figuring out deviations from the canon is hard, hopefully, I will figure out more interesting things later.

As he swung through the city the last thing that Adrien expected to see was a flying cat, and yet here he was. Wrapped up in some sort of cable hanging upside down like a Christmas Goose.   
“Well, I love hanging around as much as the next cat, but we should get going. The whole city will be crushed if their new heroes don’t appear.” The cat quipped, retracting the claws on the end of the cables into the weird gauntlets she wore.   
He noticed that his sword stuck in the asphalt below, and when the cables loosened he found himself hurtling down towards the ground, smacking his head into the pavement. Then he felt a weight fall on his back. He looked up and saw the cat as she somersaulted off him and crouched looking at him with startlingly blue eyes.  
“You ok?” the cat asked, “I really didn’t mean to squash you.”   
“I’m fine … Um who are you?” he asked.  
“Didn’t your momma-bug ever teach you to introduce yourself first?” the cat asked, a smirk prominent on her face. He sighed, deciding that this was going to be a tedious conversation,  
“I’m … I don’t know, I haven’t thought of a name.” He said as she helped him up.  
“Well, I’m Chatte Noire, and it seems that we will be working together!” she says peppily, twirling and flinging her claws towards the stadium, “ the last one to the bad guy is spoiled milk.” And off she went.  
“Ladybeetle.” he finally decided, flicking his sword towards the stadium.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
When she got to the stadium Chatte looked around, finding that almost everyone had already left due to the giant stone golem that was lumbering around looking for someone.  
“KIIIIIIM” the Golem yelled, picking up some of the seats and tossing them away.  
Chatte ducked as more seats flew over her head, her hair darkening as she seethed.  
“Hey, you could kill someone doing that!” she yelled, quickly hiding again as the golem looked around for her, her hair lightening again.  
She heard a set of footfalls next to her and saw her new partner land next to her, quickly jumping into cover next to her.  
“I’m Ladybeetle, just decided on the name, anyway I’m more of a support type, and my rapier wouldn’t do much to that.” He sighed. “What about you?”  
“No prob,” Chatte responded pounding her fists together, “I’m pretty sure that these will do some damage”  
And off she went, rushing up behind the golem and slashing at his head with a quick combo.  
The golem flinched but then grew at least four feet taller, gaining some spikes and an ill-tempered expression.  
Chatte, noticing that her attack did nothing backed off, only to be swept away by a backhand from the stone creature.  
She backed off further and hid away again “well, that didn’t work.”  
“No kidding.” Ladybeetle responded with a flat look. “any other bright ideas?” he asked with a note of condescension, done with this girl’s reckless games.  
“We could use our powers.” She noted quickly calling upon Cataclysm. She felt her hand reach up and brush her earing, quickly becoming covered in acid green flame. She then brought her hands together cracking her knuckles and spreading the flame to her other hand as the cestus’ claws melded with her fingers, becoming razor sharp.  
“Apparently this lets me destroy inanimate objects, and jinx people.” She said in a weird tone, a dark look coming to her eye as her raven blue hair goes void black. Suddenly, she jumps up and slashes a goal post the golem had sent flying at a girl who was hiding and recording them. Once her left hand made contact, the flames on them jumped off and turned the goal to rust just after her claws turned it to ribbons.  
Landing on her feet in a crouch, she launches herself at the golem with a hiss, tearing into him with a somewhat sadistic grin on her face. The flames on her right hand sink into him, giving him a sickly green aura as he grew another 5 feet. He backhands her away as her hair gains it color back, sending her flying back to her partner, who notes that the golem overestimated the smack, got his hand suck in the turf, and had fallen over.  
“Woah, kinda lost myself for a moment, what happened?” Chatte asks, a perplexed and pained look on her face as she hears her earing beep, “oh right, I only have like five minutes left.”  
“Good thing that I noticed that the Akuma's other hand has stayed closed this entire time, must be where the corrupted spirit is.” Ladybeetle says with a smirk, flipping his sword and smiling, “By the way, good idea, I think I’ll use my power too” He said noting the bystander hiding in the entrance tunnel with a smirk, the tap next to her and his partner, now looking less hurt.  
“Lucky Charm!” He yells, his sword gaining a pink glow as he cuts a rift in the air, an odd polka dot wetsuit falling out, which he catches.  
“Well, if we can get him to the Seine we can all go swimming,” Chatte notes, a smirk on her face.  
“Or we can do this,” Ladybeetle notes, picking her up by the waist making her blush. The blush doesn’t last as he throws her towards the Akuma while it freed its hand, quickly catching her in its fist.  
Ladybeetle sticks a hose in the suit and ties up the neck and extremities quickly. Then he runs at the Akuma yelling “Bet you can’t catch me!”  
The Akuma opens its hand to catch him while dropping a piece of stone from its hand.  
“You there” he yells to the girl recording them, “get the tap!”  
Seeing what he means, the girl opens the tap, the suit expands, and lets the superhero out, shattering the Akuma's hand in the process.  
Ladybeetle smashes the stone, causing a butterfly to fly out.  
“That’s the corrupted spirit, catch it!” Tikki yells in his head,  
“Right, how do I do that?” he asks, trying frantically to get to the bug, nothing working.  
“You need to fill the sword with good luck, then swing it at the bug,” Tikki says frantically, watching as the thing flies off.  
“And how do I do that?” he asks, watching the spirit become a speck on the horizon, “Never mind, it got away.” He noted angerly, feeling somewhat down. “Dang bug moved quick.” He grumbled.  
“For future reference, you fill the sword by touching your stockpile to that recess in the pommel. Your stockpile is that gem on the side of your miraculous. It holds your excess good luck now so that you can choose when it affects you rather than it just doing so and use it to fuel abilities you’ll get later. The tradeoff is that it can leak if you get a quick influx from doing lucky things, which causes a nasty feedback sickness while the miraculous tries to absorb it back.”  
“That’s great,” he sighs, knowing that now he can live semi-normally. Then he hears a bell chime behind him, seeing that his cat has snuck up on him, staring in an odd fashion at him before hearing a beep.  
“Sounds like this cat’s gotta split, until next time” a smirk, “Milady” and off she flies, a weird blush coming to her face when she notices what she has done.  
“I’m a guy!” he yells, wondering what the cat is thinking  
Walking over to the boy now laying on the ground near the piece of paper the rock chunk had turned into he picked up the page and read it. He was appalled at the note, wondering why Kim would be so cruel.  
“Ivan, there is nothing wrong with having a crush on someone, and there is also nothing wrong with telling them you like them. Kim is just jealous that you have someone to feel that way about. If you are brave enough to tell this person that you like them, I almost guarantee that they will reciprocate those feelings.” Ladybeetle advised not noticing the set of blue eyes that looked at him from the shadows with awe and worry.  
“Thanks, Ladybug, I will” Ivan responded, not noticing the twitch in the hero’s eye as he ran away to see his crush.  
“Hey, red dude!” Ladybeetle looks at the girl from before  
“Yes”  
The floodgates opened, “I’m Alya, I have so many questions! Who are you, what are your powers, how did you get them, are you dating that cat hero, what is she like, what’s she like” a gasp, “Did you get bitten by a radioactive ladybug?”  
“I’m Ladybeetle, and she will introduce herself later,” He said before zipping away to look for the spirit that had flown away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Yah. That happened.  
> Quick notes (some spoilers):  
> 1\. Yes, Ladybug's chosen name in this is Ladybeetle (the commonly used scientific name), but for whatever reason, all the public and news sources are going to call him Ladybug.  
> 2\. Chatte's weird breakdown is going to be explained more next chapter, but don't worry she won't have it happen very often.  
> 3\. That "I'm a guy" gag is going to happen a lot, a male hero being named Ladybug tends to create gender misconceptions.


	7. Chapter 6 or A Blast from the Past, Present, or maybe Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Long Chapter!

“It’s no use I couldn’t find it” Adrien groaned slumping on the couch in his room as Tikki bit into one chocolate chip cookies he had gotten from the kitchen for her. It just so happened to be bigger than her body making the vestige of her eating it quite adorable. Adrien may have grabbed those ones on purpose, but there was no proof.  
“Don’t worry, it was your first time, this was bound to happen,” Tikki said calmingly between bites of the cookie. “Anyway, since we have time, I can explain the secondary powers of your Miraculous.”  
“Ok, so what was that Book of Order you mentioned?” Adrien asked, taking a bite of a random pastry, he had grabbed along with Tikki’s cookies.  
“It catalogs the life, memories, and abilities of all your predecessors. With it, you can trigger secondary weapons that will be useful in (and sometimes out of) battle, at the cost of stockpiled Good Luck. Your current stockpile is small, only able to hold the same amount as your own form, but as you grow as a person and superhero it will grow as well, by the time you have reached your full potential you will probably have access to the universe’s stores of luck.” Tikki posited, trying to look studious despite the second massive confection she was starting to bite into.  
“So basically, it allows me to change forms. What is my life, some sort of anime?”  
Adrien asked with a scowl.  
“Well, kind of. It’s more nuanced than those shows would have you believe. When you trigger it, your whole set of abilities change. For example, if you called upon the memories of King Arthur, you would lose your normal, or base, weapon and gain his Excalibur, which has the power to call people to your aid and give them means of protecting yourself and themselves. When you use Lucky Charm in that state you will get something more geared towards his time, say instead of getting a mirror to deflect a beam, you would get a polished shield. You can go back to your base state at any time, the downside is that if you switch between predecessors a lot, especially at this early stage, you may find that you don’t have enough luck to purify the corrupted spirit.”  
“Ok, so be careful with switching, but what would stop me from automatically grabbing the strongest one and staying like that until I’ve won?” Adrien asked, quirking an eyebrow.  
“You need a predecessor’s approval before you can use their powers,” Tikki said in a matter-of-fact tone as if getting long dead people’s approval was a perfectly normal thing to do. “It’s easier to just try it than to explain.” She said, glowing a pink light before a red leather covered book popped into existence on the coffee table next to her.  
Adrien picked it up and opened it to a random page, reading about a female ladybug who was in much the same situation he was. Apparently, her weapon was a yo-yo, which he found odd. How was a yo-yo a weapon?  
“It’s actually quite useful. And is much more versatile than your sword” said a cute voice behind him.  
Turning around he saw a red-tinted spectral girl sitting on the railing of the second floor of his room wearing a red blouse and some sort of pants rolled to the knees, her hair done in suspiciously familiar pigtails, a sprig of hair shooting from the top of her head. “You can call me Brigette, nice to meet you, I was Lady Luck right before you.” She jumped down to the floor and then slumping on a chair that was facing the couch.  
“Lady Luck?” Adrien asked, wondering about the odd turn of phrase.  
“Oh, that’s our official title, each miraculous holder has one. We are Lady or Lord Luck, the black cat is the Jack or Jane of Change, and the butterfly is the Guide of Spirits. Those are the important ones at least. Anyway, I’m here to be your guide, since I was in your shoes most recently I am the one who shows you the ropes of using the book.” The girl said, sitting crisscross on the chair, hands in her lap.  
“Ok teach, teach away,” Adrien said, eager to learn something new.  
“Well, first things first, the book itself is broken into sections. Each one representative of your stockpile’s level for lack of a better term. The further back in history you go, the more powerful the predecessor and the more good luck you need to summon their power. Right now, you only really have access to my power, and maybe Joan of Arc’s although that may be a stretch due to you only having the beginning storage space.”  
“Ok, so what is your power, and how do I become worthy of it?” Adrien asked, somewhat worried what hoops he would have to jump through.  
“Oh, mine is a freebie. I already saw your first battle, and feel that you can use my power well. It’s called the Lady’s Wings. I’m kind of the workaround to using your sword for purification. Instead of having to pump good luck into my weapon, you can just activate it once and catch the spirit or spirits in it. What my weapon lacks is the directedness of the other’s, it’s basically the alternative to your sword if you want something more ranged. In the future though, gaining new powers could involve anything from proving yourself in battle, with them or a powerful foe, to learning a new skill in life. Sometimes you will need to learn something from them before you can use their power in battle. It’s a mixed bag. Trust me though, you have it easy, us regents of luck tend to be softies at heart, if you had gotten the cat, you would be in trouble, they tend to be a bit harder on their students from what I understand…”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------  
“Plagg! Why is there a boy in my room, sitting in my chair, and why is he transparent!?” Marinette hissed at the small cat, eyes narrowed to needles.  
“I’m right here you know.” The spirit in a forest green dress shirt, black vest, and black dress pants said primly, giving the blue haired girl the stink eye.  
“Yes, I know. But all I did was open a book that Plagg gave me! How was I supposed to know that a man would hop out!?”  
“Well, knowing Plagg, the draw of mischief would be irresistible, despite how well you seem to hold him to task. I’m Felix, and I am here to explain this book and the secondary workings of your miraculous to you.”  
“Oh, I already mentioned the whole descendant powers thing, and the stockpile to her,” Plagg said lazily floating by, hovering with a cheese Danish stuck under his feet making it look like he was sailing in it while eating it.  
“Ah, so you know now that all the excess bad luck you create no longer affects you unless you do something unlucky, in which case it flows back in?” Felix asked an eyebrow quirked  
“Yep, although I don’t feel a difference,” Marinette said, a scowl on her face while she fiddles with the earring. “Also, why don’t you have a pierced ear, didn’t you have to wear the miraculous since you were a black cat?”  
“Oh, I did, for me, it was a ring. The miraculous change shape to suit their wearer, for you it is an earring, for me a ring. For others, it was other things. In general, though they like to stay jewelry of some sort.”  
“Great, so anything I should know when talking with the others in the book,” Marinette asked, worried about the types of people that would wield Plagg’s power.  
“If you stay polite you should be fine, us cats tend to be proud but we also hold a soft spot for our own.” Felix said with a smile and sighed, “You remind me of my lady luck somewhat, she was just as curious and short, in height and temper. You even wear your hair the same. Anyway, I think you are already ready for my weapon, although it doesn’t have any special use, it is the base weapon for all non-special black cats. It’s called the Cat’s Tail, a baton which turns to a staff, it can also purify corrupted spirits, but you will not be able to fix the damage the Akuma caused. It is a good all-around weapon but does not specialize. It will change your cataclysm (Felix cringes at the pun) into a single, more focused use. It doesn’t have the jinx effect that you have on people though, instead it … let’s just say you don’t want to use it on people.” Felix pales at the end, seemingly remembering something traumatic.  
“Got it, so don’t use cataclysm on people in that state. Does every one of these transformations change my cataclysm?” she asked  
“Yes, where the Lords and Ladies of Luck only have their ability’s randomness reduced, our power will change, be it in magnitude or effect.”  
“Also, Plagg told me I fell into a weird state while using my cataclysm. My hair apparently changed color, and I also seemed to enjoy the idea of causing pain to the Akuma, is there a reason for that?” Marinette asked, worried about what it could entail, especially the part about enjoying causing pain.  
“It is a result of the ability’s nature most likely. It seems that in your hero form your hair shows both your anger and your control over bad luck, when you activate cataclysm Plagg creates a large amount of bad luck, free of charge, to exert, since you were already topped full, some broken part of your psyche was revealed to deal with the surplus. Your psyche was probably in a hurry and grabbed the first piece of your personality that would be able to control the bad luck, hence the sadistic outlook. In general, all of us cats have had our hair show our emotions when I was transformed my hair stood straight on end when I was surprised or angry. The color of your hair most likely works like that, it seems that your control over Bad luck fluctuates with your emotional state, when you are angry you have almost ultimate control, hence why you could counter your friend’s bad luck to stop the goal post and find the correct moment to strike to cause the worst bad luck for the Akuma. The Sadistic side of you is probably the broken pieces of your personality that the hardships you have gone through have created, conglomerated into one violent, angry personality, an id if you will. There have been some well-known Black Cats with such a problem, the most well know would be Heracles, who called his id Hera, thinking that some angry deity was causing his rage when it was just his Cataclysm. Considering this I would suggest avoiding him until you have more control over yourself due to the side effect of his Cataclysm, blind bloodthirsty rage. (Marinette cringes thinking about what would happen if her new id and that power met in a dark subconscious.) Your id will probably not surface much in the future, this time was more just your psyche getting used to the massive power flux which comes with Cataclysm and trying to vent it quickly. It seems that your hair also darkens if you are full to the top with Bad Luck and overflowing since it would be necessary to vent it some way it would come out by corrupting the color of your hair. If you are really worried about the breaks, I would just suggest finding out ways of keeping your stress and anger in check, but really just don’t use the power of destruction when frustrated it almost never turns out as well as it did today.”  
“So, if I get really, really angry I will have my hair get dark and my control over bad luck will increase, but at the same time, I have the chance of a psychotic break. And also, I need to make sure to use some power in order to have space for the influx of bad luck cataclysm provides.” Marinette askes, trying to get her head around the lecture she received. At Felix’s affirming nod she sighs “Great, so more I need to worry about. I mean it’s not too bad since I guess that it will only really be targeting an opponent, but I would hate to think what would happen if I was somehow mad at my bug.”  
“Oh, there is a safety feature to that.” Plagg interjects chewing on another danish, “If your Lord Luck can get close enough to touch you he can give good luck to you which will counter the excess bad luck and snap you out of your break. Wouldn’t be a good idea to have the protector become the enemy.”  
“That’s a relief, it’s a good thing that they canceled school for the rest of the day, it means that I can learn some things to expend my excess bad luck.”  
“Might I suggest some mischief” Plagg askes with a slightly evil grin, “you do have one power that I can teach you which you can use outside of the suit.”  
Felix stiffened, “You’re going to teach her now? I didn’t learn about Misfortune until much later, although once I did I didn’t use it much, just to avoid that annoying runt.”  
“Yeah, I think she is ready for the responsibility, plus she needs a way to get rid of her excess quick, especially when she creates it so quickly. Heck, she could fill a stockpile in like half a day at the rate she was going, and that was before she had the miraculous supplementing it.”  
“Ok, cat-sensei, ghost-sensei, I am ready to learn,” Marinette said jokingly, bowing with fake reverence.  
“Misfortune is like a miniature cataclysm, but it works more like the butterfly Miraculous’s akumas. You focus a chosen amount of bad luck into an object and the object’s holder takes the bad luck until the object is empty. The bad luck will be diluted and spread out, more a series of unfortunate events than a massive chaotic event like what will happen if you experience bad luck feedback. In general, it is the safest way my kittens have found to get rid of excess bad luck.”  
“Ok, so how do I do it? Do I need to find a certain ancestor or do some sort of weird motion?” Mari asked quirking her head.  
“No,” Felix growled, “You just focus on the bad luck you have in the stockpile and coalesce it into your aura, then you point it at the object you want to infect or the object you want to have malfunctioned and there you go.”  
“In people words, feel for the bad luck that you can control, pull it into your hand and let it sit there for a bit till it feels different, then send it to an object.” Plagg summarizes in deadpan.  
“Ok, thanks, Felix, I’ll call you again if I have more questions!” Marinette said with a smile.  
“Oh, one more thing, try to get the Black Hole Cloak next, it’s Robin Hood’s page, 1583 if I remember correctly.” And the previous cat popped out of existence.  
“Now I just need to find my first victim, and I have just the person in mind.” Marinette cackled in mock evil fashion with Plagg joining in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is my first time polling my readers but you have three choices of victims for Mari's first misfortune.  
> Your Choices Are:  
> 1\. Adrien (she does have it out for him right now)  
> 2\. Chloe (obviously)  
> 3\. Kim (He did cause an Akuma after all)


	8. Chapter 7 or Miss Fortune Strikes Hard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the winner of the Poll is Chloe, with Adrien getting the runner-up sadness, and Kim landing third with no mention what so ever.  
> Just a warning, Marinette comes off a bit more ... villainous, in this chapter, this is semi-intentional. Don't worry though, she'll make up for it next chapter.  
> Thanks to MyneanRebel for (partially) inspiring Adrien's role in this chapter and a minor piece of bad luck : 3

After she had dismissed Felix, Plagg had explained how Bad luck was broken up. He had explained that each of stockpile held roughly 200 units of bad luck, he had described a unit as “the amount of bad luck necessary to get a losing die roll in a friendly board game, nothing life-changing, threatening, or hard to deal with”. He also noted that it went exponentially, 25 units, he said, would be enough to have a normal person’s version of a bad day, remarkably tame in comparison to her normal day. At fifty it would be a normal day for her: a lot of tripping, odd occurrences, and cosmic curveballs. At 75 units it would be equivalent to hard day for her, usually ending in a Rube-Goldberg machine of bad luck with the recipient in the middle. Anything above that, he noted as overkill, at 100 units it would create a day that could make a normal human being borderline psychotic, and above that was a range that none of his kittens had ever tried on normal people, but he noted that should the person have remarkably high good luck, she would need to neutralize it with an equal amount of bad luck on top of what she wanted to use to affect them. He had stated that units of bad luck were smaller than units of good luck, the conversion being roughly two BLUs to one GLU, citing both the fact that it was easier to manage bad luck in smaller amounts, and because good luck tends to overpower bad in a head to head conflict.  
Naturally, the sunshine child was her first choice, He always had a happy disposition and she felt it was time for him to feel something else for a change. She had ideas but figured that she needed practice first.  
For practice, she had decided to send five-unit misfortunes at random passersby outside the bakery. The first time she had done it had been a surprise, she had instinctively held her palm under the gem of her earing, and into the palm, a blueberry-sized glob of green light dropped. After allowing it to sit for a second, it started to shine a bright blue like her eyes and turned into a midnight blue cat no smaller than the lid of a salt shaker, with only dark green eyes and a black smoky spade tail to show its origin. She had looked at the tail, and decided to call this manifestation of the power an Ace since it reminds her of the playing card and due to it being her ace in the hole should she be in a tight spot. Sending her Ace off to an unsuspecting woman trotting past the bakery, she watched as its tail grew long and attached to the woman’s wedding band, which suddenly gained a dark sheen and slipped off her hand, rolling just on the edge of a drainage ditch before stopping only to be picked up by a nearby pigeon and dropped into a man’s food further down the road. The woman started walking over to the man and had just gotten to the table to retrieve her ring before the Ace walked in front of her feet, tripping her with its tail before poofing out of existence with a snicker, the ring gaining its golden sheen once more. Marinette smiled at this, it seemed that this would work out after all if she could cause this sort of small-scale havoc with just that little amount of bad luck, how horrible could it be for someone if she gave them more.  
The next morning, she tried her power on Adrien, a 30-unit Ace (roughly the size of a large kitten) stalked up to him. The poor thing had tried to wrap its tail around a ring that was on his right hand, only to be slurped up by it, a loud screech ringing in Marinette’s ears as she heard what she assumed was the poor thing being neutralized. She had tried threesome of salt-shaker Aces next, but they had met the same fate, only with the loud shrieks being threefold, and much more heartrending. She was now rightly miffed and decided that the only logical course of action was to shift her crosshairs to her daily tormentor, Chloe. Sitting on the steps up to the principal’s office during a mid-morning break, she started conjuring bad luck until the glob was roughly the size of a large pomegranate, fifty units of bad luck, leaving her with just over 100BL due to her experiments on Adrien. When the Ace formed, it was roughly the size of a full-grown house cat and had curled up to her leg, nosing it for attention. Petting the Ace, she pointed its head towards where Chloe sat with a smirk on her lips and crooned, “Go my little Ace, ruin her day for me.” The Ace gained a large smirk, eager to please its creator, and slinked over to the blond. It stretched its smoky tail up and wrapped it around the girl’s yellow hair scrunchy, giving it thin black and green strips. Soon after it got to work…

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Chloe was fed up, her day had been going well, she had gotten up early, eaten a good breakfast and had received notice that a dress she had ordered was ahead of schedule in development. Then, she had gotten to school early to find that the klutz was already there somehow, staring daggers at Adrien like he had brutally murdered a beloved pet of hers. The first two classes went by with little to do, and she had gotten to the break ready to brag to Sabrina about the new dress that her father allowed her to order. The change happened when a chill had gone over her for a second. All of a sudden, her phone went off, answering she heard her father’s almost unused displeased voice, “Chloe, I have just gotten word that people are being turned into stone beings, one of which was the man making your dress.” At this Chloe sighed, it was only her father trying to vent to her, “I only found this out, because I was calling to cancel your dress order. I was looking at a few of your assignments since I had some free time and nothing to do, and noticed they were in your friend’s handwriting, and not yours. Due to this discovery, I have decided to not get you any new clothes until I find that you are doing your own work and getting grades equal to what you have now. I am very, very disappointed in you.” The call ended with a snap. Chloe was shell-shocked, never in her life had her father been that cold to her, and never had she felt so in the wrong for her actions. She thought she heard a snicker and looked around, finding nothing. She got up and started walking to her locker to get a bottle of water, she had made it only three steps before she felt something around her ankles and tripped, catching herself in time, but not before everyone noticed. She glared around, to make sure no one would remember and stalked off, stumbling twice more on her way to the hallway. On her way down the hallway, she noticed Adrien walking in the opposite direction, seeing the lovestruck look in his eye she followed, forgetting about the water she was going to get. She made it just in time to hear the start of their conversation:  
“Heh-hey Marinette, you look nice today.” Adrien had stammered, smile plastered on his face  
“Morning Sunshine” Marinette had muttered in response, giving Adrien a weird look somewhere between curiosity and malice, her hand hovering near her right ear, flicking a dangling gem there as she stared somewhere just behind him and flicked her head towards Chloe, questioning in her eyes.  
“I was wondering if you were free on Sunday?” Adrien said with a determined look on his face  
“Why? Is this a date request, or are you looking to be friends?” Marinette asked, clearly only to string the poor boy along for the payoff later.  
“I was hoping for a date, but I’ll take either,” Adrien said with hope in his eyes.  
There was a pause as if Marinette was weighing something in her mind, finally, a look of grim determination stuck in her eyes.  
“Yeah, no. I’m not in a good mood today, so I’ll not sugar-coat like I usually do.” Marinette murmured to him, a false smile plastered on her usually neutral face, “I don’t like you, and we are not compatible. You are blessed with some unnaturally good life and haven’t worked for anything, I have the worst luck imaginable and have had to work for what little good I have. You are oil, I am fire, and if you don’t want to be set alight, I suggest you run away and fast.” She finished curtly, standing quickly and walking off, presumably to find her bespectacled friend.  
Adrien had looked crushed at that, his sunny mood greying over in an instant. He ran off, shoving past Chloe, what looked like tears in the corners of his eyes. Chloe had rushed after him, and found him in the janitor’s closet, crying into his palms, she had heard him talking to himself like something was answering him through the door. She had gone in and tried to calm him down. She succeeded in stopping the tears and getting him to at least put on a straight face, but when she had asked him if he was ok, it was her turn for her world to be shattered, “Yeah, I’m fine Chlo, you’re a great friend, I wouldn’t want anything to change that.” Fed up, and heart-broken Chloe had excused herself after ensuring that her friend was truly alright. On her tromp down the halls, she slipped on something (an old, black banana peel) and bumped into a large mass. The mass ended up being Ivan. Since she needed to feel better, Chloe decided now was the time to release her frustrations. She started teasing Ivan about his deeds as Stoneheart, finishing with a jab about Mylene never falling in love with a monster.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Ivan had run off and ended bumping into Adrien, a downcast look covering the blond’s sunny disposition.  
“Hey Ivan, how are you?” Adrien asked half-heartedly.  
“I, I don’t know, I want to tell Mylene how I feel, but I don’t know how.”  
“You both like music, right?” a nod, “Then write her a song.” And Adrien walked off to mope somewhere else, not caring if his classmate would be happy or not.  
He had made his way to class and sat behind his crush, only half paying attention to roll call, until the giant stone man had burst through the wall, and grabbed Mylene.  
Chloe, who had been abnormally clumsy that day, had tripped in her attempt at fleeing from the room and had been captured by the Akuma, the weird sheen Adrien had noticed around her hair scrunchy dissipating with a flash of black.  
“Great, now I have to be a hero while in a bad mood,” Adrien muttered dejectedly, running off to the bathroom to transform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Note or Two, or three:  
> 1\. Yes, Mari was more than a jerk to Adrien, but it was for a good reason. I want to have a reason for Adrien to stick with his crush on Marinette for the long run, and this was the best way to set up for a scene later.  
> 2\. Mari does feel remorse, don't worry, she made it up to those passersby when she saw them later.  
> 3\. No, My Marinette is not a psychopath or a sociopath: She is just a girl who has been through the ringer a lot and doesn't like people who are just given things without earning them: She is totally fine with normal, not entitled, not born-into-wealth, people.  
> Thanks for Reading and DFTBA  
> (Also If anyone does fanart of the Aces send it to me and I will put it on this story if I can figure out how otherwise I will hyperlink to it in a google drive.)


	9. Chapter 8 or Rolling Stones Gather No Power

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm Back from the Dead with the second to last chapter of the Origins Arc!  
> I'm Sorry this took so long but I wasn't really happy with this chap for a while. I finally decided to just post what I had and move onwards, If you don't like this chapter don't worry I agree with you, But I want the story to move forwards so here it is.  
> Also, I suck at romance so I'm sorry if that feels rushed.
> 
>  
> 
> Credit for the first scene's inspiration goes to Kaye. Thanks for your frequent comments, they make me smile whenever I read them.

He never made it to the bathroom. As he reached the door, a swarm of students washed over him and dragged him out of the school building. It deposited him just outside the school, luckily the school was refurbishing some things and there was a nice pile of old floofy cushions to land on. Of course, the giant rock monster barreling towards him wasn’t a nice fluffy thing, in fact, he was quite uncomfortable due to that detail. Just as he was about to be steamrolled, a blue, black and pink flash ran by, snatching his hand and dragging him away. The blur ran down the street, turning down an alleyway near the bakery where his crush, (ex-crush he corrected mentally with a sigh, he had no chance with her) lived. He only noticed who his savior was when she opened her mouth.  
“Geez, for someone who’s so lucky, you don’t find yourself in many good situations, do you?” Marinette exclaimed, leaning against a wall while staring at him, a glare barely overruling the look of concern that wanted to appear.

“Why did you help me, I thought you hated me?” Adrien gasped, still catching his breath.

“I’ve been having a bad day, I had just found out that a pet of mine had passed and then you showed up, sunshine child of the year, and I just lost my temper. Good job on that by the way, I don’t really explode often,” Marinette half lied. She had watched a pet die in a way, her Aces felt like good friends she had known for a lifetime. Those screeches would haunt her.

“Sorry about your pet, but that doesn’t explain why you helped me when you have been avoiding me for months.” He stated, eyebrow quirked, frown still apparent. 

A crash was heard a few streets down and both teens snapped to attention.  
“We are not done talking, but I’m going to go hide somewhere far away.” Adrien said, turning to run towards his house.

“I’m going to stay at my house till this blows over, why don’t you, it’s closer anyway.” Marinette said, knowing that she could slip into her room and no one would know she was gone.

“I … I guess, i-if I’m not intruding?” He said, momentarily forgetting the large rocky problem to which he and another random person were the only solution.

“You’re not, at most you’ll be the one inconvenienced since my parents have a bad habit of feeding people.” Marinette responded, walking towards her parent’s bakery. 

“I, I’ll still feel like I’m intruding, I’ll go home.” Adrien said turning heel and walking in the opposite direction after hearing a loud bang from two streets over.

“Suit yourself, I’m getting out of here”, The girl turned the corner and out of view.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marinette walked into the house quietly, popping her head into the living room to let her parents know she was home and safe before going up to her room.  
“So, what was that all about?” Plagg asked popping out of her blazer’s thigh pocket.

“What? Being nice to Adrien?” Marinette asked with a tilt of her head while she made it look like she was taking a nap in bed, “I felt bad, I’m allowed to do that right?”

“Well, if anything has been the same with my cats it has been that they are unapologetic, even if they have their soft sides.” Plagg said, curling on her head.

“I only said that to him, so the Ace could do its job. You know I didn’t want to hurt him, especially since we don’t know if our big bad can create more than one supervillain at a time.” Marinette said. The Aces, she had found, had a mind of their own once she created them and when they had a plan it was best to just go with the flow. The Ace had given her its plan to ruin Chloe’s chances with Adrien and it had been too good to pass up. “I may dislike his insane good fortune, but I more want to crush him under bad luck than break his heart.”

“Either way we have an irate pebble to crush. Plagg Claws Out!” Marinette said, brushing her earing, the gem swinging on its beading as neon green light rushed over her, changing her into Chatte Noire. She summons her cestus and shoots the claws towards the stone giant she had just seen and flies off towards it.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What’s her problem? Why did she help me? I mean, why would she say what she did, then go and save me from a giant stone monster?” Adrien murmured to Tikki as he ran around a corner.

“I don’t know Adrien. Maybe she just felt bad, or maybe there was a reason she said those things” Tikki replied, knowing that Marinette had been sending out Aces, and their tendencies to ruin things other than their intended targets.

“Well, guess there is no point in worrying right now. Tikki, Spots On” Red light covered him as the transformation took hold. He felt his rapier and scabbard fall into place on his belt, but felt another weird weight on his other side, looking he saw the red leather covered book.

“That is the Book of Order when transformed you use it to call upon your predecessor’s forms, just find their page and there will be an inscription for you to read, once done you will change forms” Tikki explained quickly.

“OK, got it!” He heard a female scream from a few streets over, “looks like we have somewhere to be Tik” he thought, swinging towards the voice.

... 

When he got to the voice he did not find a damsel in distress as expected, rather he found a pissed off Chatte Noire standing in front of a collapsed billboard, muttering about using a lot of Bad Luck.  
“What happened here?” Ladybeetle asked, eyebrow quirked.  
“What happened is I used way too much bad luck with an ability of mine, the poor pebble got crushed under the weight of his bad luck.” A smirk played across her features.  
“That doesn’t answer my question.” He stated, a deadpan expression playing across his features.  
“I have the ability to transfer my bad luck to others, Generally I only use like 30 units, since my Kwami told me that no one ever goes over 100. I was going to use it on the minion, but I had to dodge a string of attacks and that made me focus too much Bad Luck into it, I ended up using 150 units instead of fifty. Apparently adding more than 100 units makes the effects speed up and actually allow physical harm to the target.” She said, pointing to an emerald on the back of her right cestus that was almost completely dull grey, with only about a fourth of it bright green, “I only have like thirty units left, that’s barely enough for me to change forms.”

“So, all this destruction is because you couldn’t focus on using your ability properly?” he asked with a hint of disbelief.

“What’d you expect from the black cat of destruction, chaos and bad luck?” She asked, turning to go towards a small plume of dust in the distance.

“Less destruction that was for sure.” He said, going to follow.

They had just started swinging towards the dust plume when she caught a glimpse of something surprising, “So, what do you know about plumbing?” Chatte asked staring at the giant stone behemoth currently climbing the Eiffel tower, a yellow blob in one hand, a smaller black blob sitting on its head, quivering.

“Seriously, why reference Mario?” Ladybeetle asked, changing course to follow Chatte as she went towards the landmark.

“Well it was either that or reference King Kong, and that is soooooo overused” the cat drawled easily swinging from rooftop to rooftop.

“How about neither? I mean it’s not like you need to.”

“Yes, I do, especially since you’re acting like such a stick in the mud.” She said back with a pout, eyes glimmering with something, Ladybeetle couldn’t place it for the life of him.

Sighing he rolled his eyes, he looked back towards the giant stone villain making its way up the tower, when he heard a voice he hadn’t been expecting, “Let me go, you oversized lawn ornament, if you don’t I’ll call my daddy on you!” Of course, Chloe couldn’t gage a situation to save her life.

“Sure, I can do that,” Stoneheart replied, chucking the girl towards a police blockade.

Chatte was about to grab her before she landed but, her partner sped past and caught the girl mid-air, setting her down next to her father with a small nod. Chatte just hung for a second, speechless at her partner’s speed, but she got her bearings and swung over to silently land on a police truck behind the red hero.  
As soon as the giant had noticed the red hero a dark purple butterfly outlined his face, and he started coughing up black butterflies. The butterflies flew up and formed a giant face, a mask covering the face’s look of placid anger, as the stone giant seized up stuck to the side of the tower. “Lord of Luck, Jane of Change, I am Hawkmoth – the guide of spirits, patron of inspiration, you have done enough damage to this city, give up your miraculous now before others get hurt.” The villain said in an almost disinterested fashion.

Chatte looked ready to jump towards the cloud and start maiming butterflies, but before she could she heard laughter, looking around she found her partner doubled over, laughing.  
“Oh, wow, good to know we got a supervillain with a sense of humor. Hawkmoth, if anyone here is going to be giving up their miraculous it will be you. So far, all the damage that has befallen the city and its people have been your fault. The most damage I have seen is from either of us was just an admittedly tacky billboard that was used to stop one of YOUR minions. So, Hawkmoth, I think it is you who should stand down. It’s about time these poor little spirits were purified.”  
Ladybeetle pulled out his book and turned to Brigette’s page, where he found her inscription and chanted, “The freedom of the skies come to my fingers, the power of justice sway to my call, and the duty of light fall to my shoulders. Come, Lady’s Wings.” The book rocketed out of his hand and floated above his head, dispersing golden light over him. His outfit changed to just the spandex, his gloves, boots, and belt melting away into the light. His hair, usually just kept in its normal style was pulled into a small ponytail at the base of his head, a red hair ribbon appeared and tied itself in a way that looked like antennae, in place of his scabbard and rapier he had a yo-yo. Giving it a few swings he stated, “Let’s De-evilize shall we?” and swiped a finger up the yo-yo, causing it to glow white.  
He then jumped and swung it repeatedly through the swarm of corrupted spirits, small bursts of thanks spreading from them as they were caught by the flying disk.  
Landing on a low bar of the tower he addressed the people. “Let me make this promise to you Paris! So long as I and my partner Chatte Noire stand we will aid you. Everywhere that Hawkmoth and his Akuma appear we will stop them!” and with that he tapped the top of the yo-yo allowing the spirits to burst out, spreading over the city before dispersing into white light. After this his new form dropped, leaving his previous one, which jumped over to his partner who was staring at him with adoration in her eyes. “Well, are we just going to stand here, or are we going to cleanse this Akuma?” 

She shook her head then nodded, “Of course Bug, but how are we going to crack that boulder?”

“I was thinking we melt his heart. He seems to have a crush on that girl, so why not bring them together?” Ladybeetle asked, cringing slightly as he thought of his own crush and his suggestion to Ivan. 

“I have no better ideas, so I’ll follow your lead. I feel like I’ll be doing that a lot.” She grumbled. 

“First things first. Lucky Charm!” Ladybeetle yelled slashing the air, a red and black lasso falling out of the rift that formed.

“So, are we going to hogtie him? I’ve been working on my square knots.” Chatte quipped at the item.

“Nope, we are going to catch us some lovebirds.” And with that he scaled the tower, Chatte right on his heels, wondering what sort of plan he could have. 

In his mind it was obvious, give Stoneheart’s hand enough of a shove that it forced Maylene to kiss him without activating his powers, that would make the Akuma drop her. Then, lasso the girl so she stays safe, leaving the victim for Chatte to save.  
The plan went well, after Stoneheart lost his grip Ladybeetle had used his sword to slash the stone the Akuma tossed in his direction, causing the corrupted spirit to fly out, he had sheathed his sword for a second, lassoed the girl, catching under the armpits and he had pulled her up, he then ran his finger up the side of his sword’s blade while putting his ring to the pommel then slashed the spirit, absorbing the corruption and leaving a white butterfly which dissipated into white mist. Chatte had used Cataclysm to create a rusted rail to slide down to catch Ivan as he fell, she had then sprung off it and had used her second use to counter any mishaps in the lassoing Maylene. She had then helped them down. Ladybeetle landed next to her, and shoved his sword into the ground while facing away from the tower, pressing his ring to the sword, a weird purple pattern formed on the ground as he said, “Lucky Cure”, which caused a fissure to open in the ground, into this he dropped the lasso. A second later, out of the fissure came swarms upon swarms of ladybugs which flew around fixing the damage caused by the stone beings, changing the beings back and fixing a random Agreste Fashion billboard, while mending wounds sustained during the chaos before flying back in and closing the fissure behind them.  
“Good Job,” they said giving each other a fist bump.

“You sure got overpowered in a hurry, how did you fix everything so quickly?” Chatte asked wondering how much good luck he had used to fix the city.

“From what my Kwami said, the Lucky Cure takes the power from Hawkmoth’s corruption and uses it as energy for a spell that reverses it. I was also told that it counteracts the effects of some of your more destructive abilities. No more ruining the furniture for you, Minou.” Ladybeetle said before hearing his ring beep in warning, “Gotta fly, see you soon.” He then swung off leaving Chatte standing speechless.

Chatte swung home, dropping through the opened skylight into her bed before transforming back.  
Marinette sat in bed and thought about the day's events with Plagg was curled up on her knee eating a Danish.  
“He’s so brave, and honorable, and kind.” She thought aloud to Plagg, the Kwami seemingly ignoring her. She thought back to his Lady’s Wings form, “not too shabby in the looks department either.”  
Thinking back to his speech she added, “and he’s so composed and authoritative.”  
Then her mind suddenly lurched to his comment earlier, “He called me kitten.” She looked to the side of her bed where there was a mirror, her cheeks were flushed as she thought about the boy in red spandex with his confident smirk.  
“I think I like him.” She squeaked, her face erupting further as she turned and shoved her head into a pillow, flinging Plagg across the room into the mirror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the Alternate Love square is almost solidified, all that needs to be done is Evilistrator and an Umbrella-esque scene and for the AU shipping wars to begin.


	10. Chapter 9 or Because Black Cats Dream of Ladybugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm Back!

They certainly do, as Marinette learned the night following the Stoneheart fight. She had dreamed of her and Ladybeetle sitting on the Eiffel Tower and just talking about their lives, not too romantic sure but she liked the idea of connecting intellectually with someone before completely giving into love.  
“So, what are you going to do about blondie?” Plagg asked from his pile of apology danishes.

“Who Adrien?” She asked as she grabbed her two umbrellas, there was a ten percent chance of rain and it was ingrained in her to not take chances.

“Of course, we never finished talking about that, are you going to truly make up with him, or are you going to avoid him?” Plagg asked as he went onto his last Danish. Marinette wondered how such a little thing could eat so much so quickly.

“Well, it’ll be easier to pull off my long-term plans for him if we are friends, sooo I’ll probably try to make it up to him, possibly try to connect with him on an emotional level or something.” She responded tactlessly, as she rushed down the stairs, grabbing a cherry turnover from under the counter before running towards school. She was being weary with her Aces since she didn’t know when she would need to transform, as a result, her bad luck was back where it used to be.

As she crossed the street, her shoe found the curve and stuck to it, sending her arse over teakettle towards the staircase at the front of the school, where Alya was waiting to catch her before she ruined another set of innocent jeans.

“Hey, girl! Did you see the Akuma fight yesterday, it was sick! And get this! Chatte Noire crushed a stone being that was about to crush me! She saved my life! I have to find some way to thank her.”

“Whoa, Alya slow down, I bet it didn’t mean much to her. You were in trouble and she was probably just doing her job.” Marinette deflected, not liking the idea of her best and first friend feeling some sort of life debt to her alter ego.

“I don’t think that’s true Marth, she acts just like a barrel of sunshine and kittens, but she also had this cool badass side of her that counterbalances it! I mean she seems like the perfect counterpart to Ladybug.”

“Ladybeetle, and what’s wrong with him!” Marinette asked, irritated at both the nickname (given to her when her friend walked in on her while the blue-haired-girl played Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon) and the besmirching of her new crush.

“He happens to be the most stereotypical person I’ve run across, I mean don’t get me wrong, He’s a genius and a great strategist from what I’ve seen but…” she paused, thinking how to word it, “he just doesn’t seem any different than superhero archetypes, I mean he’s a smart, cunning dude that spirts one-liners and is this grave, serious, force of order. He just seems cold half the time, and plain cliché the other. I like Chatte because she seems to be making the best of a power usually reserved for villains. I mean look at her, she wields the power to destroy anything she touches, yet she still manages to be both a good guy and keep a mostly bubbly, happy personality. Plus, I mean, she did save my life.”

“Let’s just agree to disagree. But in terms of thanking her, why not change your blog to help them? I bet if you put up accounts of old fights and use it as a way of alerting them to Akuma they could do their jobs better and would be grateful.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that, but what can I name it, I mean I’m drawing a blank. You’re the creative one in this friendship, help please.” Alya begged, puppy dog eyes engaged.

“Fine, how about the Miralog, I mean I can’t think of any cat-related ones and from what Hawkmoth said their powers are from something called a Miraculous, so why not?”

“That works, not too catchy though.” Alya sighed

“I mean you could also call it the Ladyblog, but from what I saw, Ladybeetle doesn’t like puns,” Marinette said

“I’m going with Miralog, I mean if I liked Ladybug more I would go for Ladyblog, but I mean I’m really just kind of luke-warm about him.”

“Again, agree to disagree” Marinette responded, walking into her classroom to an interesting sight. Adrien was in his usual seat, head in arms looking sad. He also seemed exhausted.

Marinette grimaced, seeing the affects her Aces could have, and Alya gave her a nudge. “Hey Marth, you having second thoughts about Golden Boy?”

“Maybe, I mean, I can see he’s not as bad as I originally thought, maybe we could be friends, but I don’t know about anything more.” She replied easily, and just loud enough that Adrien could barely pick it up.”

Adrien’s head perked up, and he asked, “Hey, Marinette, could we maybe talk at lunch?”

“Sure, why not, I don’t have anything better to do.” She replied, trying to keep her neutral air.

Adrien gave her a small smile and looked up as the teacher walked into the classroom.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tikki sat in Adrien’s pocket thinking about the new black cat. She seemed good enough but something about her just rubbed Tikki the wrong way. Kwami were supposed to be counterbalances to their holders, reigning in the rough parts of their personalities. She was with Adrien because his meekness covered a lot of self-doubts and some self-loathing, being filled with good luck did that to a person. She was there to encourage him, be the voice of reason should he overreact. Usually, Plagg was given to an overachiever, someone who was constantly stressing about everything, who needed a lazy force to reign them in and get them to loosen up. Marinette seemed to be neither of those things, in fact, she seemed to know when enough was enough. Heck, Tikki could see herself liking the girl if she didn’t control Plagg so well. She had that cat following her orders way too easily, usually his chosen would be an insomniac from his constant complaints by now, but instead there she was looking all too smug at the affects her careless revenge had on Tikki’s chosen. Tikki then muttered a curse, of course, Plagg had chosen one of those cats, one of the ones who meshed all too well with his chaotic tendencies. The other thing that never changed about Plagg was that he was a troublemaker, True Chaos. He loved a good joke, almost more than cheese. Tikki sighed, Plagg had chosen another Loki. Dang, this was going to be a problem come October 31st.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrien looked out at the downpour in front of him, wondering idly if he had used to much good luck the day before, looking at his ring he found that his stockpile was eerily empty, with only ten units remaining. Sighing at the fact he didn’t have an umbrella, he turned around, ready to walk inside and find his crush. Instead, he almost had a heart attack as the girl was standing right behind him with a quiet smile on her face.

“Hey, you ok? I thought we were going to my place for lunch.” Marinette said, clearly ignoring the heart palpitations she just gave him.

“Fine, but I don’t have an umbrella, usually I don’t need one unless there’s a high chance of rain.”

“Here,” she said holding out the red umbrella she had just opened, “you can borrow one of mine. And sorry for what I said the other day, I wasn’t in a good place at the time. You didn’t deserve that.”

Adrien felt a weird cold feeling wash over him as he took the umbrella, his hand brushing hers …

And pressing the auto close button on the small umbrella, all at once allowing the rain he had stepped into to soak him. Marinette looked at him for a second then burst out laughing. It was the most beautiful sound that he had heard in a long time.

“Oh, My, Gosh. You look like a drenched cat!” She cackled, almost collapsing before she notices the blush that had come to Adrien’s face.

“W-wwell you too would If this you happened to.” He stammered, not noticing the awkward wording. Her phone had rung, saving him from himself.

“Yes, Maman, I’ll be right over.” she answered, “Sorry Adrien, I need to take a raincheck,” she smirked at her pun “my parents are actually asking for my help baking for once.”

“I have a-a photo shoot noon after this. I mean this afternoon, so s-ssee you tomorrow” At his allowance, Marinette put up a black umbrella and walked off towards the bakery across the street.

Adrien sighed after the girl and muttered to himself, “Great the stammering’s back, and it took me a month to get rid of.”

Tikki flew out of his pocket and sighed saying, “Well, it was your idea to fall for her again. I’m rooting for you, but I doubt she’s going to make it easy for you.”

Adrien flicked his Kwamii with a small smile, “Well yeah, Teek, that’s half the fun of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends the Origins arc, Suggestions for CHAPTERS will now be implemented should there be any.
> 
> I look forward to comments and suggestions, and you guys ...
> 
> DFTBA


	11. Chapter 10 or Full o’ Bluster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stormy Weather and a Carnival roll into town. And a wild OC appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys!  
> Back Again with a long chapter of Ladybugs and Black Cats, Seriously the thing is like 8 pages in the word doc where I write this thing.  
> Also, before this starts just a reminder that this is an AU and therefore will have altered events and circumstances, so please don't kill me for it. Any extra holes will hopefully be explained in the endnote.  
> Enjoy ^o^

Marinette sighed, staring at the 6-year-old shaped Hurricane currently blowing through her family’s living room. “This kid is going to be the death of me Plagg” she muttered to the cat currently hanging out in her right pigtail while turning on the tv. “You’re telln’ me Blue, but you’re not the one who came a whisker’s breadth from being hugged and loved to your only slightly less than impossible death.” The cat replied with a shiver.  
The kid in question was Manon Chamack, the daughter of a friend of her parents, and a royal pain in her behind. While her parents barely trusted her to watch the closed shop for an afternoon, they for some reason allowed her to babysit Manon whenever her mother needed. Manon had been running around and getting into her things since she had been dropped off, so it had been a miracle that the girl had grabbed the large cat pillow Plagg had been hiding behind rather than the Kwami behind it. Marinette had spent the rest of her morning battling to keep Tropical Storm Manon out of her diary (full of her secrets), her sewing cupboard (full of her sharp sewing implements and priceless designs) and the pantry (full of her food). She was now exhausted as she flipped through the channels ending on KIDZ+, “always a fan favorite” she murmured seeing the young girl plop in front of the television as she opened her 3DS for a much-needed round of Smash (No items, Final Destination, of course). She was just in the middle of picking her Character (Marth, funnily enough) when there was an exuberant knock at the door. Opening it, the bluenette was surprised to find Alya standing there grinning at her like a psychotic killer.  
“Guess what!” Alya screeched, disregarding Marinette’s look of discomfort.  
“What, did you finally figure out how to make a person deaf with just your voice?” Marinette asked, voice full of mirth despite the words it held.  
“Nope, still working on that. But there is an awesome carnival going on in the park near the school and I just found out I can get in free because my dad agreed to help with the animals there. Wanna Come?”  
“Sorry Alya, I can’t. I got roped into watching the little demon sitting in front of the tv.” Marinette responded with a sigh as said demon turned around.  
“I wanna go to the carnival.” The girl said, giving Marinette a look like a cat sitting in the rain pleading to come inside.  
“I, … Your mom said, … I can’t just, ….. Oh, fine, just let me get a jacket and my purse,” Marinette relented, hoping that Plagg didn’t pick up that skill to use on her. “And put those dang things away before you make my heart explode!” a squeal of joy and a cut off laugh were her responses.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Adrien had no clue why his parents thought it would be a good idea to do a photo shoot at the park when a carnival had rolled into town, but half the time he didn’t understand one-hundred percent of their motives, so he usually just rolled with it. He sighed as he was directed to sit on the edge of a fountain. “Come on, give me a look that says, ‘I’m thinking of you’.” The photographer said causing Adrien to give him a quirked eyebrow, of course, that changed when he saw Marinette being dragged past the fence towards the other half of the park, where the carnival was set up.  
Adrien got a far-off look in his eye as he thought, “Oh, I wish I could talk to her normally again, I mean I’m thankful for her friendship, but is it so wrong to wish for more. If I could get the words out, I could ask her on a date, then we’d get married, and have three kids, and maybe a dog … no a cat, … No, A HAMSTER, Marinette loves hamsters! She said so to Alya when they were looking in that pet store window Thursday.”  
Adrien had quickly descended back into his crush after that rainy day and had reached new levels of lovesick. It was only through his sheer awkwardness that he was no longer able to express such feelings to Marinette. “You know Adrien, following a love interest to catalog their schedule is not the usual way of getting closer to them.” Tikki had said the first time he had begun following her.  
“Of course it isn’t,” he had said, “but I can’t seem to gather up the courage to ask her out again, so the next best thing is to know as much as I can about her.”  
He was abruptly jolted out of his reverie by his mother’s voice, “Adrien, honey, we’re done for the day, want to stop by the carnival before we head home?”  
“Yeah, sounds good! We don’t have anything better to do, do we Dad?” he asked, hoping that their schedule was free.  
Gabriel checked his phone, scrolling through apps before raising his head, smiling while saying, “No, it appears your mother actually had the foresight to block a few hours of free time after the shoot.”  
“And just for that, you aren’t getting cotton candy,” Ariadne remarked, a small smile showing that she was joking. Adrien started slowly inching his way away from his parents  
Gabriel just smirked, “Joke’s on you, I prefer elephant ears.” He said while giving his wife a kiss on the earlobe before following his son’s apparent hasty retreat to the bright lights of the fair.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Meanwhile, in the KIDZ+ Station, a contest is being held for their new weather girl, of course, the show itself is being filmed for later broadcast, so the crowds outside the building hoped to learn of the winner before the show actually aired. In the studio, a girl fumed. Aurore Boreal steamed as she got into the elevator, not only had she lost by a frankly ridiculous margin, the host had the audacity to joke to her about it. Suddenly, the elevator stopped.  
Across the city, a man with shaggy, dirty blond hair, wearing a paint-stained tee shirt covered by a grey button-down, white jeans and a pair of orange sneakers stops. Turning into an alleyway he holds the Locket/Pin Hybrid holding the knot of his purple scarf. “Oh, what do we have here.” He remarks darkly. A second later the alley is empty, and the man is standing in an Observatory. “Nooru, we have someone in need of inspiration. Dark Wings Rise” A small purple butterfly Kwami barely has time to come out of hiding before he is being sucked into the man’s miraculous, clean spirits appear from thin air in the form of butterflies and swirl around the man, suddenly exploding away to reveal Hawkmoth in the flesh. “Oh, you poor girl, dreams shattered, falling into the cold pond that is hatred. A perfect canvas for a new villain.” Catching a spirit in his hand he hovers his other hand over the top of it, sending dark energy into it, corrupting the pure spirit of inspiration into a dark shadow of itself. Hawkmoth then whispers to the corrupted spirit, “Fly, and give this girl the drive to do what she wishes.”  
A few seconds after the elevator stopped and the lights went out, Aurore Boreal noticed a weird black spot appearing on the doors of the elevator, and all of a sudden a small black butterfly fluttered down onto her signature parasol. Snapping to attention, her mind is suddenly filled with plans for her revenge against Paris for wronging her and taking her dream. “Well, Stormy Weather, I can give you the power to make these plans a reality, or you can forever live in obscurity. It is your choice, All you need do once you have the powers is get me the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. Do we have a deal?”  
“But of course, Hawkmoth.” Stormy Weather replies, getting up as dark magic coats her being, transforming her into an Akuma.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Marinette sighed as she watched Manon petting an elephant at a small sideshow attraction. She had not wanted to spend her Saturday this way, she had wanted to just sit back in her room with Plagg and finally get the chance to contact Robin Hood, but alas fate as always was against her. And so, she instead has to stand near one of the smelliest animals she has ever met while pretending to enjoy an experience that is not entertaining to her. Adding insult to injury, Alya got pulled away by her father to help with some of the animals, leaving Marinette alone with the little hellspawn.  
“Marinette, I want Cotton Candy!” Manon said, suddenly holding the edge of her babysitter’s blazer.  
“Alright, as long as you share,” Marinette said, walking towards the part of the carnival that housed the food stands. She was just about done at the cotton candy cart when she found one of the stranger sights in her life, and that was saying something: Adrien standing off to the side of the crowd, placing bits of cotton candy inside his overshirt. Deciding that this was outside the realm of normal, unlike the crowd it seemed, she walked up to him, after buying Manon her treat.  
“So, Adrien, should I question why you are dirtying up a shirt that probably is only allowed to be cleaned by angel tears and detergent made of diamonds?” Marinette asked from behind him.  
“Gahhhh,” Adrien exclaimed, jumping in the air. “Uhb, no you really shouldn’t.” He said slowly, seemingly trying hard to make sure he doesn’t make a fool of himself.  
“Well, what brought you here, not every day you see the heir to a fashion empire at a street carnival.”  
“My mother decided to bring us here after a photoshoot, but I think it was an excuse to do something fun with my dad by herself, the guy works himself to the bone. We still see him, but sometimes I think that he lives out of the office. And don’t get me started on how he … I’m ranting aren’t I?” Adrien asks after tapering his rant off with a slight gasp.  
“Yeah, but I mean, it’s not the worst thing you could be ranting about, there are much worse …” Marinette stops talking after seeing Manon was no longer holding her hand, “Uhm, I have to go track down a demon child, I’ll see you later.” She said, quickly chasing after the distinct pigtails, that now definitely looked like devil horns. Distracted by her quarry she didn’t even notice Adrien staring at her with a dopey grin on his face.  
The blue-haired girl was finally within distance to stop Manon when the girl stopped on her own.  
“Hey, Marinette, isn’t that your friend?” she asked, pointing to Alya as she finished leading a panther back into a cage behind the big tent.  
“Yep, that’s her,” Marinette said before getting a mischievous twinkle in her eye, “Hey, Princess Unicorn Rishpa called, it wants to return its claim on you!” Marinette yelled, watching Alya jump a little before seeing her and walking over.  
“Well, you can let them know that I’m called Alya now.” She said, barely sparing a glance at the young girl her friend was holding hands with.  
“Uni?” Manon pleaded, looking at Alya with her hi-beam Kitten eyes, “Can you take me on the Merry-Go-Round?”  
Marinette could give Alya a bit of credit, Alya lasted at least a second longer than she had herself.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
And Suddenly, Marinette was quite relieved that she let Alya take Manon on the new Merry-Go-Round themed snow globe. Of course, she would be happy to laugh at the surprised face Alya was making at the new Akuma, but it wouldn’t be right especially since Marinette had a date with an insect-themed superhero. Running behind a side-show tent Marinette shook Plagg out of his resting place in her purse.  
“What! What is it, couldn’t you see I was sleeping. I know you like my company, but I draw the line at cutting into my nap time!” Plagg screeched before seeing the glare that was fixed on him by his chosen and the dark color her hair had turned.  
“Plagg,” she said, anger seeping through her dangerously calm words, “you should know by now that I wouldn’t wake you up for no reason. And you should also know my tolerance for your whining.” She seethed amping up her glare a notch or three.  
“Right sorry, my bad. Sorry, but please calm down, what was the reason for the nap interruption?” Plagg asked, floating back slightly. Last time she had gotten this mad she had only given him yogurt for two days. He still cringed when he saw those weird tubes.  
“Another Akuma, just my luck, I was hoping for a quiet Saturday. Seems to be snow themed too.”  
“So, are you going for Ice puns or Frozen references?” Plagg asked seeing his chosen had calmed down.  
“Oh Plagg, my silly kitty, why not both? Claws Out!” And where Mari had been standing was now Chatte Noire.  
Chatte bounded out and ran for the Merry-Go-Round, looking to see if there was anything she could do.  
“Chatte Noire! Are you here to save us?” Alya cried, knocking on the ice.  
“Well, that was the plan, but it seems that this ice is too thick for me to cut through with my claws, even if I sharpen them all the way with bad luck, and I don’t want to use my Cataclysm just yet. Seems that I’ll have to leave you guys on ice, at least until the Elsa is defeated.”  
“Stormy Weather”  
“Excuse me?” Chatte said, with a quirked eyebrow.  
“She said her name was Stormy Weather.” Alya responded, “Oh and she has lightning powers too”  
“Downright electrifying, I’ll be off, CATch you later.” With that Chatte swung off towards the small blizzard now making it’s way to the big top.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Adrien fared slightly better. After the weird, short, conversation with Marinette, he found himself wandering the Carnival looking at the attractions to see if he could track down his parents or one of his other school friends. That process was halted when he saw a large ball of ice flying towards the big top, freezing a large dome over it. Adrien bolted around the corner and nudged Tikki who had crashed from the Cotton Candy he had given her.  
“Hey Tikki, we’ve got an Akuma,” Adrien said  
“Give me a sec.” Tikki replied, yawning and stretching a bit, “Ok, all ready.”  
“Tikki, Spots On.” Red Light ran over him and in Adrien’s place was Ladybeetle.  
“Best clue is that massive dome over the big top.” He muttered flicking his sword towards the massive dome.  
He flew in just in time to hear the end of a quip, “… need to Chill out Ice Queen.”  
“Minou, can you not joke around for just one day?” Ladybeetle asked with a sigh.  
“Oh, come on! That was a two-for-one and I didn’t even get a smirk!” Chatte griped. The Akuma then sent a blast of wind towards them sending her blasting into a ring toss stand, “Egh that game was rigged anyway.” She said as she got up.  
Chatte then ran up on the Akuma, jumping and slashing, trying to get through the wind it was swirling around itself. She failed miserably.  
Stormy Weather gave a deadpan look and shot Chatte Noire and Ladybeetle halfway across the city on a gust of air. Ladybeetle was able to catch her before they fell but ended up landing on top of the cat in a rather *Ahem* suggestive position.  
“I didn’t know you were so bold, M’Lord,” Chatte said with an eye flutter and a slight blush, hands near her chest, tail sitting in the shape of a heart near her head.  
“Not now Minou,” Ladybeetle responded, pulling them up as Stormy floated down a few meters away.  
“Fine, be that way, I have at least three more,” Chatte responded with a pout, shoving the two of them out of the way of a lightning strike.  
“Is it FRYtening that I like her outfit?” Chatte asked, dodging more lightning.  
“Nope, it has a certain appeal to it,” Ladybeetle responded with a small smile after seeing how the Akuma was scowling at them.  
“It does make a shocking statement. But I can’t help but feel it could use a few joules to amp up its appeal.”  
Ladybeetle snickered as he got behind the Akuma and used his blade whip to knock the Akuma towards Chatte.  
She then jumped up and landed a hit couple hits on the Akuma, knocking the weather girl back and leaving its side oozing a weird black-purple goo that fell off it and dissipated before it hit the ground.  
“Ok, apparently Akuma bleed magic grape jelly.” Chatte said with a quirked head, looking to her Cestus to see that they were clean, “Oooh, I didn’t know these came with a self-cleaning feature!”  
“That is handy,” Ladybeetle remarked, “Although, it looks more like current jam than grape jelly, see the little bits of white in it.” Chatte squinted and nodded with a small gasp.  
The Akuma winced (or maybe glared, it was hard to tell) and opened its umbrella, blasting the heroes into the KIDZ+ building.  
Getting up and walking up on a cutout of a familiar girl Ladybeetle said, “Hey, I found her. And I’m willing to bet that the Akuma is in her umbrella.”  
“Yep, that explains all the powers. Although, hate to rain on your parade but how are we supposed to get her main weapon away from her?”  
“I’ll think of that later, why don’t we get to the high ground and look for her,” Ladybeetle responded, leading Chatte to a stairwell.  
As they raced up to the roof, A thought popped into Chatte’s head, “I’ll bet that she got akumatized by losing the contest!” She remarked.  
“I guess,” Ladybeetle responded, “but I fail to see the relevance of how we got to this point. It happened and we just need to deal with the consequences. Now help me with this door.”  
Together they slammed open the door to meet a smirking face.  
“Well, looks like you fell right into my hands you fools.” The Akuma snarked crossing her arms after freezing the door closed.  
“Oh, just Let It Go already” Chatte groaned, “we already have one full of themselves supervillain, we don’t need another.”  
The Akuma bristled and started whipping up the wind around the tower. Raining some lightning on them before giving a reprieve to say:  
“Fine, but it’s my job to let you know that you’ll be experiencing localized rainstorms in 3, 2, 1.” And she shot a blast from her umbrella, creating a raincloud over the cat’s head. 

Now, Marinette had noticed over her brief time as Chatte that she had picked up a few catlike tendencies. She appreciated naps in the sun more, she fooled with her thread collection a bit more than any aspiring seamstress should. And she HATED getting wet now. So, When the Akuma decided it was a good idea to give her an impromptu shower, she snapped. Her hair went void black as it dripped water and a black green substance.  
“Hey Bug?” She said turning Ladybeetle gaining a sadistic smile, “How many pieces do you think I can slice her into before it hurts the victim?” She asked as she started to prowl towards the weather manipulator.  
The Red Hero backed up at his partner’s sudden intensity before he remembered what Tikki had told him to do in this situation. Gathering up some good luck from his ring he formed a ball in his hand and yanked Chatte away from the akuma by her tail. He shoved the ball into her back and saw her calm down, hair visibly lightening, although it didn’t dry.  
“You know, even though I’m back in my right mind, I still want to kill her,” Chatte said, glaring at their opponent and yanking her tail out of his hands.

“Well Kitty, I figured out what we need to do, see that board over there, vent your anger on it.”  
He then summoned his lucky charm, an umbrella appeared from the rift.  
The plan worked perfectly. Chatte used Cataclysm on the board and made it fall towards the Akuma, who shot a hole in it to escape being crushed. At the same time though Ladybeetle started towards her, flying above her and using his umbrella to slow his descent on a gust of air created by an air vent. When he got close enough, Chatte used her second hand on the Akuma, causing it to look towards the cat while fumbling with her umbrella, giving the bug his chance to swap umbrellas as hers was also open to fly.  
“Hey Stormy, give me your best shot.” He smirked, watching as the Akuma tried to do something and relishing her face when she noticed that she wasn’t holding her umbrella.  
He then shattered the corrupted umbrella over his knee and watched the spirit flutter out.  
“Let’s De-evilize shall we.” He remarked, collecting the butterfly with his sword and freeing it from its corruption.  
Collecting his lucky charm from the now confused girl, he stuck his sword in the ground and the purple runic pattern appeared again.  
“Lucky Cure” He proclaimed, dropping the umbrella into the fissure to nowhere that was created. Ladybugs flew everywhere, melting ice and fixing destroyed cars.  
“Good Job!” They remarked, giving each other a fist bump.  
“Well Bug,” Chatte remarked as her miraculous beeped, “Looks like we put this one on ice. See you later M’Lady” She then repelled away to his enraged shriek.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Chatte Noire muttered a silent curse as she swung around the carnival to find Manon and Alya. She had left them alone and now they weren’t where they had been trapped. Normally, she would be happy to leave that demon to someone else, but she was worried about her best friend. She felt relieved when she saw Ayla and Manon sitting in the park feeding some pigeons that had settled by the fountain and set down just outside the park.  
“Oh, Thank goodness you’re alright!” She yelled running over to Alya and giving her a hug.  
“Of course, we are girl. Do you really think I would let us become human popsicles?” Alya responded, shivering slightly from the residual cold.  
“No, but I almost did, I got stuck in the big top. Do you know how hard it is to be stuck in one freezing place with at least a hundred people?” Marinette asked.  
“Sounds horrible girl, should we head back to your place?”  
“Yeah, I think Manon’s mother will probably want to pick her up what with the attack and all,” Marinette responded, putting Manon on Alya’s shoulders so they wouldn’t lose her on the way back to the Bakery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To cover some things that may seem out of place:  
> 1\. Yes, Akuma bleed. They bleed out the corruption, so hypothetically if ladybeetle were to be incapacitated Chatte can defeat an Akuma without purifying or breaking the item if she wails on the Akuma hard enough. It would have made no sense to give them edged weapons if the Akuma couldn't be harmed by them, so here's the happy medium.  
> 2\. Alya still had that weird babysitter vibe that she has in the show, it just happens offscreen since it's basically the same as before.  
> 3\. The "weird black green substance" is solidified bad luck. It's how she would naturally vent the excess that is created.  
> And lastly, I apologize but Marinette became something of an Author's mouthpiece in this. Sorry but I can't stand Manon, I just find her too annoying.  
> Aside from that yes my Hawkmoth is an OC, sorry for those wanting Mr. Kubdal for the position but my sister (who happens to be my Beta-reader) and I figured out a good plotline for this new one in a similar vein to the canon one. I can't really say more at this time, although I doubt who our big bad is will be a secret after next chapter. So enjoy the suspense while you got it, cause Dramatic Irony will be my jam after and possibly during next chapter.  
> Thanks for reading and As always, DFTBA!

**Author's Note:**

> I am currently deciding the direction of this story, therefore it is in writing flux until I decide where I want to end it. This gives those interested the opportunity to give suggestions on what to do. (if I use a suggestion I will source the person I take it from not necessarily the first to give it, sorry but I'm a busy high school student)  
> Ground rules are: Keeping to the Teen rating (i.e. clean language, and nothing raunchy); The story will be loosely following the canon, with differences due to some facts of Adrien's living situation; Hawkmoth is not Gabriel Agreste in this AU! ; also Mama Agreste is Alive/Not Missing in this AU! Therefore suggestions of fluff relating to her are not out of the question; also in this AU Adrien does modeling as a hobby and he displays genuine interest in all the activities that he does after school (basically he isn't being forced into them) so he can skip a practice or two for fluff if need be  
> Suggestions will not be implemented until the (Origins) arch is complete (probably like 5-6 chapters in as I'm going for more slow burn)
> 
> Other than above, Comments are going to go unmoderated as I enjoy open discussion, but again please keep this something that you would let your strict grandmother read; I enjoy criticism if it is constructive and it will be appreciated (This is my first Fanfic after all), but on that note, non-constructive criticism or hurtful/uncalled-for comments with no reason for existing will be nuked with extreme prejudice.
> 
> Also, as an author, my word is final in the actual Canon source material of the AU (Any additional stories on this account labeled Misfortuneverse count as Side Canon - This story is the Main Canon), that said, offshoots and alternate interpretations are fine and encouraged, just note it as inspired by the "Misfortuneverse AU" somewhere and send me a link so I can read it!
> 
> Also if for whatever reason someone looks to dub/draw this (which I doubt will happen) just message me privately and we can Chat about it (=^･ω･^=)


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